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EVOLUTIONARY  POLITICS. 


ADDRESSES  AND  ESSAYS 


BY 


WALTER    THOMAS   MILLS.  ,A,.  M.,    v 


"The  evolutionary  law  of  advance  is  first  the  slightest  variation,  and 
then  that  is  repeated  and  repeated  until  it  becomes  the  fixed  form  of  the 
new  life.  The  day  of  great  things  is  a  day  of  disaster.  The  day  of  small 
things  is  the  birthday  of  destiny." 

"Wise  statesmanihip  asks  for  small  things  and  gets  them,  and  thus 
makes  substantantial  advance  in  the  world's  progress.  Political  folly  asks 
for  the  growth  of  a  thousand  years  in  an  alternoon,  and  not  only  does  not 
get  what  it  seeks  but  loses  the  good  it  might  have  had." — From  the  address 
on  The  People's  University. 


CHICAGO: 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY, 

1898. 


PRELIMINARY. 

I  want  you  to  listen  to  me.  That  is  the  reason  why  I 
have  spoken.  That  is  the  reason  why  I  am  writing. 
Whether  you  Hsten  or  not  I  cannot  help  speakin^^,  neither 
can  I  bring  myself  to  think  that  the  things  I  cannot  help 
saying  are  not  worthy  of  your  heeding.  Having  spoken 
to  those  who  were  able  to  hear  m.e,  I  have  revised  the 
stenographic  reports  of  these  addresses,  hoping  that  oth- 
ers might  read  who  had  not  heard.  I  am  a  believer  in  the 
greatness  of  the  future.  I  believe  that  the  race  I  belong  to 
will  yet  realize  here  on  this  earth  all  things  pure  and  good 
and  beautiful.  I  believe  that  the  good  and  pure  and  beau- 
tiful are  already  ours,  for  any  one  of  us,  just  so  far  as  we 
strive  to  hasten  their  coming  for  us  all.  If  these  ad- 
dresses and  essays  in  any  way  help  you  to  help  along  this 
coming  of  purity  and  goodness  and  beauty,  then  I  shall  be 
glad  that  I  have  both  spoken  and  written  to  you. 

WALTER  THOMAS  MILLS. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  UNIVERSITY  CLUB. 

BY 

GEORGE  McA.  MILLER, 

CHANCELLOR  OF  THE  PEOPLE'S    UNIVERSITY. 

The  People's  University  Club  is  a  branch  of  the  work  of 
the  People's  University.  The  People's  University  was  chartered 
in  order  to  carry  into  operation  plans  proposed  by  Walter 
Thomas  Mills.  These  plans  provide  for  a  general  organization 
to  promote  the  establishment  of  local  co-operative  schools,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  direct  the  organization  of  local  clubs  for  the 
extension  of  the  study  of  social  and  economic  topics. 

At  Hopkins  Park,  111.,  the  university  is  endeavoring  to  aid 
in  the  establishment  of  such  a  school,  and  the  Handel  Hall  meet- 
ings are  a  part  of  the  general  plan  for  local  clubs  for  the  purpose 
of  economic  study. 

Membership  in  the  club  does  not  mean  that  the  person 
joining  is  thereby  committed  to  any  doctrines  or  theories  of  any 
sort,  or  to  bearing  any  responsibility  for  its  management  in  any 
wav 

The  only  speaker  has  been  Mr.  Mills,  and  the  only  work 
of  the  club  has  been  the  holding  of  these  meetings,  where  the 
public  has  been  given  an  opportunity  to  hear  these  addresses. 
No  resolutions  are  ever  passed.  No  voting  is  ever  done.  No 
committees  are  ever  appointed.  No  business  of  a  parliamentary 
character  is  ever  undertaken. 

The  club  has  been  supported  by  a  ten-cent  collection  taken 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  and  voluntary  contributions  made  by 
friends  of  the  speaker  for  the  support  of  his  work.  In  this  way 
all  the  expe,nses  of  the  club  have  been  provided  for.  and  a  con- 
siderable surplus  turned  over  to  the  promotion  of  the  work  of 


10  ••'■./       INTRODUCTORY. 

thd  Co-bperatw^/Schgdl.  As  to  the  support  of  the  speaker,  his 
work  is  entirely  without  remuneration.  He  works  on  the  same 
footing  as  his  associates,  and  for  his  regular  share  of  the  joint 
products  of  all  the  workers  connected  with  the  university,  both 
at  the  Farm  School  and  at  the  settlement  on  South  Halsted 
street  in  Chicago. 

As  to  the  success  of  these  University  Club  meetings  it  is 
difficult  to  speak.  No  one  who  has  not  been  present  to  feel  the 
resistless  power,  the  volcanic  enthusiasm,  the  unusual  devotion 
to  public  ends  which  have  so  strongly  marked  both  the  speaker 
and  the  throngs  which  have  crowded  the  hall,  for  forty-five  con- 
secutive Sundays,  to  listen  to  his  message  can  be  made  to  un- 
derstand the  force  and  power  of  these  meetings.  No  printed 
page  can  reproduce  the  face  and  tone  and  gesture,  or  the  humor, 
the  disgust,  the  joy,  the  horror,  the  faith,  the  despair,  the  deter- 
mination, the  fearful  calm,  the  tumultuous  storm  which  alter- 
nately possessed  the  man  who  was  born  an  orator,  is  a  trained 
scholar,  has  even  in  his  young  manhood  twenty  years  of  actual 
experience  on  the  platform,  and  with  regard  to  whom  those  of 
us  who  know  him  well  can  truthfully  say  that  but  one  passion 
possesses  and  fills  his  dauntless  spirit,  that  of  love  for  his  race. 
If  no  printed  page  can  report  these  things  concerning  the 
speaker,  by  simply  printing  the  words  he  has  spoken,  neither  can 
any  words  of  description  adequately  describe  how  the  contagion 
of  every  emotion  and  the  echo  of  every  sentiment  from  the 
speaker  possessed,  enthused,  enraged,  calmed,  inspired,  stirred 
into  tremendous  cheering,  broke  out  into  sobbing,  and  crystal- 
ized  into  the  most  exalted  patriotism  in  the  hearts  of  those  who' 
heard  him. 

The  more  than  ten  thousand  people  who  listened  to  him  at 
Battery  D,  when  the  space  at  Handel  Hall  was  known  to  be  too 
narrow  for  the  multitude  which  it  was  certain  would  wish  to 
hear  his  address  on  "Judicial  Conspiracy  as  a  Factor  in  Politics," 
listened  and  cheered  and  wept  and  resolved,  as  if  but  one  spirit 
possessed  them  all. 

These  meetings  were  undertaken  with  no  local  organization 
to  support  them,  nor  any  funds  for  the  necessary  expenses. 
Mr.  Mills  simply  advertised  to  speak,  and  having  spoken  once 
kept  speaking.  The  people  having  heard  him  once  kept  coming. 
His  listeners  were  men  and  women  of  all  classes  and  faiths  and 
conditions  in  life.  Professional  men,  merchants,  salesmen,  me- 
chanics, the  well-to-do,  the  helplessly  poor,  not  infrequently  a 
tramp  from  the  street;  just  as  frequently  a  great  employer  or  a 
millionaire  from  the  boulevards.     They   were   thoughtful   and 


INTROULCTORV.  II 

capable  people,  representing  every  portion  of  the  city,  and  from 
neighboring  cities  and  towns  for  many  miles  around.  Faces 
from  Pontiac,  Joliet,  Wheaton,  and  Waukegan  became  familiar 
to  regular  attendants,  and  extended  the  parish  of  this  remark- 
able preacher  of  political  righteousness. 

Mr.  Mills  is  a  man  of  marked  personal  characteristics.  He 
is  bitterly  hated  by  some  who  know  him  a  little.  He  is  ardently 
loved  by  those  who  know  him  well.  He  is  incapable  of  malice. 
He  cannot  carry  in  his  heart  a  grudge.  But  he  is  determined, 
fearless,  a  hard  fighter  for  his  convictions.  Not  once  in  all  his 
life  has  he  failed  a  friend.  Not  once  in  his  life  has  he  pursued 
an  enemy. 

I  am  aware  that  I  am  speaking  strongly.  I  am  one  of  his 
friends.  I  have  known  him  for  many  years.  I  knew  him  when 
he  was  a  popular  lecturer,  fresh  from  college,  petted,  and  flat- 
tered and  praised — but  he  v/as  not  spoiled.  I  knew  him  when  he 
was  rich  and  prosperous,  but  he  spent  sparingly  for  himself,  and 
was  bountiful  beyond  his  means  to  others.  I  knew  him  when 
under  pressure  of  circumstances  beyond  his  control  he  was  over- 
taken by  financial  disaster.  I  was  intimately  associated  with 
him,  and  knew  how  patiently  he  bore  from  day  to  day  the  mis- 
understandings of  which  he  was  the  victim,  and  the  condemna- 
tion which  w^as  showered  upon  him.  I  saw  his  courage  rise 
greater  than  his  misfortunes,  and  have  found  his  manhood  un- 
harmed by  his  poverty.  I  knew  with  how  great  a  struggle  he 
surrendered  the  things  which  most  men  cherish,  and  devoted 
himself  without  reserve  and  unhindered  by  any  personal  con- 
sideration, to  the  work  in  which  he  is  now  engaged. 

But  his  critics  say  he  is  ambitious.  He  is.  I  know  of  no 
one  whose  ambitions  are  greater.  But  his  ambitions  are  not 
for  himself.  He  is  accused  of  being  a  puritan  in  his  tastes  and 
habits.  He  teaches  no  doctrine  he  does  not  practice,  and  he  is 
absolutely  without  the  petty  vices  which  disgrace  and  discredit 
so  many  men.  But  he  is  so  genial  and  joyous  that  his  prac- 
tice no  less  than  his  words  inspire  his  associates  with  the  con- 
viction that  selfmastery  is  the  gladsome  as  well  as  the  normal 
way  of  life. 

Dr.  John  Henry  Barrows  said  of  him:  "If  a  young  man 
cannot  go  to  college,  he  ought  at  least  to  hear  Mills  make  a 
speech."  Luther  Lafiin  Mills  said  of  him:  "He  is  more  nearly 
another  Wendell  Phillips  than  any  other  man  of  this  genera- 
tion." Ex-Gov.  John  P.  Altgeld  said  of  him:  "He  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  men  in  America."  The  Great  English  Car- 
dinal Manning,  at  his  official  residence  in  London,  at  the  close 


12  INTRODUCTORY. 

of  a  two  hours'  interview,  said  to  Mr.  Mills:  "Your  plans  are 
wise  and  your  purpose  more  worthy  than  any  other,  saving  only 
the  way  of  life  itself." 

The  secret  of  his  platform  power  is  easy  to  find.  It  is  his 
high  purpose,  his  personal  qualities,  his  genial  manner,  his 
boundless  earnestness,  his  indomitable  will,  his  unconquerable 
hope,  his  physical  constitution  of  iron,  his  limitless  industry, 
his  exhaustless  fund  of  information,  his  faultless  logic,  his  pathos, 
his  simple,  plain  Anglo-Saxon  speech,  his  marvelous  originality, 
his  simple  habits,  his  habitual  self-denial,  his  perfect  self-pos- 
session, his  naturalness,  his  clarion  voice,  sounding  with  abso- 
lute distinctness,  like  a  bugle  call,  to  the  furthest  limit  of  the 
greatest  throng,  and  finally,  with  all  and  crowning  all,  his  great 
and  tender  heart,  hot  with  passion  because  of  the  social  wrongs 
against  the  helpless,  whom  he  loves.  These  are  the  gifts  and 
the  qualities  of  the  man,  and  these  are  the  sources  of  his  power. 

I  have  written  thus  of  the  author  of  the  following  lectures, 
and  of  the  People's  University  Club,  and  of  the  Farm  School 
because  I  believe  in  them  all.  I  am  sure  that  if  giving  -some 
idea  of  the  meetings  where  these  addresses  were  delivered,  and 
of  the  speaker  who  delivered  them,  any  single  reader  shall  read 
them  with  more  attention,  separate  from  the  marked  personality 
of  the  author;  or  if  I  shall  win  for  him  another  listener  at 
future  addresses,  or  shall  place  one  single  student  under  his 
care,  then  I  shall  have  made  an  important  contribution  to  the 
cause  of  humanity;  and  added  somewhat  to  the  brightness  of 
the  dawn  of  the  new  day,  w^hose  light  already  glints  all  faces 
which  are  turned  toward  the  morning. 


EVOLUTIONARY  POLITICS 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED. 

It  is  difficult  to  think  of  a  more  serious  question  than 
what  shall  be  done  for  the  unemployed,  and  yet  I  am  to 
ask  you  this  afternoon  to  think  together  with  me  for  a 
little  while  about  a  harder  question.  If  the  unemployed 
are  unable  to  find  a  place  where  by  their  labor  they  may 
provide  themselves  with  a  livelihood,  what  shall  be  the 
chance  for  the  children  of  the  unemployed?  If  the  man 
who  has  already  come  to  the  years  of  maturity  is  crowded 
out,  what  is  to  be  the  future  of  the  young  lives  which  are 
crowding  in  upon  us  out  of  another  world?  There  is  no 
place  for  their  fathers,  where  shall  we  find  a  place  for 
them? 

The  time  once  was  when  the  boy  in  the  country  could 
any  time  when  employment  was  scarce  on  the  farm  turn 
to  the  village  or  to  the  larger  town,  and  not  only  provide 
for  himself  but  better  his  chances  in  the  world.  This  cen- 
tury commenced  with  only  one  out  of  nineteen  of  our 
citizens  in  cities  and  towns,  and  it  is  closing  with  fully 
one-half  the  population  in  cities  and  towns,  and  the  other 
half  confidently  expecting  to  come  to  town  in  a  few  days. 

The  time  was  when  the  boy  in  the  East,  when  the  old 
farm  had  grown  too  small  for  further  division,  could  go 
West  and  grow  up  with  the  country ;  or  if  he  was  a  vil- 
lager in  a  New  England  town  and  there  was  no  room  in 
his  father's  store,  he  could  start  a  store  of  his  own  in  a 
rising  village  of  the  West,  and  speedily  come  to  wealth 
and  power. 

The  time  was  when  the  educated  were  so  few,  and  the 

13 


14  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

demands  for  their  services  so  great,  that  lo  be  a  scholar 
meant  to  find  employment  in  the  professions,  and  the 
learned  professions  ever  stood  with  wide  open  doors  for 
those  who  were  able  to  learn  the  lessons  and  do  the  tasks 
of  these  more  difficult  undertakings. 

But  the  country  is  crowded  as  well  as  the  city.  The 
West  is  crowded  as  well  as  the  East,  and  the  unemployed 
in  the  professions  is  becoming  quite  as  serious  a  matter 
as  the  unemployed  in  the  commonest  ranks  of  toil. 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  family  was  the  industrial, 
social  and  commercial  unit.  The  greater  share  of  a  man's 
wants  wxre  things  that  pertained  to  provisions  for  his  fam- 
ily, and  the  family  by  their  joint  labor  produced  for  their 
own  use  the  things  for  their  own  consumption.  The  old 
home  was  a  rambling  sort  of  place  out  on  the  country 
side,  away  from  the  city  and  its  strife.  It  nestled  on  the 
hillside,  it  was  at  the  crossing  of  roads,  it  was  a  farm,  a 
shop,  a  home,  a  barn-yard,  a  factory  for  making  food,  and 
clothes,  a  nursery  for  children,  and  sometimes  even  a 
church  and  a  school.  The  food  for  the  family  was  grown 
on  the  farm.  The  furniture  for  the  household  was  made 
on  the  farm.  The  clothing  for  the  backs  of  the  family 
was  taken  from  the  backs  of  the  sheep,  and  the  sheep  and 
the  spinning-wheel  and  the  loom  and  the  tailor  shop  and 
the  dressmaking  business  was  all  a  part  of  the  farm.  In 
the  summer  time  the  raw  materials  were  taken  out  of  the 
land,  where  the  farmer  and  his  children  toiled  together, 
and  in  the  winter  time  they  manufactured  boots  and  shoes 
and  clothes  and  furniture,  enlarged  their  buildings,  com- 
pleted the  all-round  life  which  belonged  to  the  family,  al- 
most sufficient  in  itself  in  the  efifort  to  provide  for  its  own 
wants.  There  was  little  to  sell,  and  little  occasion  for 
selling. 

In  an  old  labor  document  published  one  hundred  and 
nineteen  years  ago  I  recently  read  of  a  New  England 
farmer  who  was  writing  then  on  the  subject  of  hard  times. 
Some  one  had  affirmed  that  hard  times  had  been  the  re- 
sult of  extravagance  in  the  households  of  the  people. 
They  were  buying  too  many  things.     And  his  answer 


THE    CHILDREN    OF   THE    UNEMPLOYED.  15 

was,  that  whatever  might  be  true  of  others,  his  family 
had  not  expended  in  excess  of  $10.00  each  year  for  a  long 
time  in  the  purchase  of  all  things  for  family  use.  All  else 
of  food  and  clothing  and  shelter,  of  necessity  and  of  lux- 
ury alike,  had  been  produced  in  the  household  shop  and 
on  the  household  farm.  In  those  days,  to  be  sure,  there 
were  no  millionaires.  Not  even  were  men  ambitious  to 
become  millionaires.  Neither  were  there  tramps.  If  men 
WQve  poor  it  was  because  they  were  thriftless,  indolent, 
or  unfortunate.  If  men  were  comfortable  they  were 
housed  and  fed  and  provided  for  by  the  skillful  industry  of 
their  own  hands.  There  was  death,  there  was  misfortune, 
there  was  accident,  and  of  course  there  was  poverty,  but 
there  was  no  monopolizing  of  the  earth  and  its  opportuni- 
ties. There  was  no  disinheriting  of  the  unborn,  with  all 
the  chances  of  livelihood  possessed  and  cornered  before 
life  was  given  to  the  child  who  first  learned  that  it  was 
alive  a  hundred  years  ago. 

What  destroyed  the  independent,  self-employed,  self- 
directing  industry  of  a  hundred  years  ago?  The  machin- 
ery of  that  old  industry  was  rude  and  simple.  A  single 
worker  could  use  the  tools,  and  a  single  family  could  con- 
sume the  products.  But  the  new  tools  came,  and  the 
boys  and  girls  looking  for  employment  found  their  way 
into  the  manufacturing  town.  The  little  country  shop 
was  ruined.  The  shop  was  here,  the  store  was  over  there. 
The  shopman  found  that  the  store  could  sell  what  he  pro- 
duced cheaper  than  it  was  possible  for  him  to  make  it. 
There  was  no  margin  left  for  work  in  his  shop  on  which  to 
support  himself  and  family.  The  country  shop  was  closed 
up,  and  the  worker,  looking  for  employment,  followed 
the  product  from  the  country  store  back  to  the  place 
where  it  was  produced  and  found  employment  in  the 
great  factory  where  the  competing  product  came  from. 
In  shoes,  in  iron,  in  wood  work,  in  clothing,  in  the  thou- 
sand things  which  men  produce  and  use,  one  after  an- 
other, the  household  industry  failed,  the  tools  were  put 
away.  The  populations  of  the  country  farm,  home  and 
shop  were  scattered.  They  found  employment  in  the 
rising  factory  town.    The  great  factory  had  destroyed  the 


l6  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

small  shop.  The  small  shopman  had  become  the  employe 
of  the  factory  town.  He  no  longer  owned  his  own  shop, 
he  no  longer  worked  with  his  own  tools,  he  no  longer 
lived  in  his  own  house,  had  his  own  garden,  and  was  no 
longer  attached  to  the  place  of  his  childhood.  A  thou- 
sand things  that  had  been  dear  and  beautiful  in  his  life 
dropped  away,  lost  their  meaning  and  their  influence.  He 
was  working  with  another  man's  tools,  he  was  working 
under  terms  prescribed  by  the  other  man's  interest.  He 
was  living  as  a  tenant  in  another  man's  house.  At  home, 
and  at  toil,  he  was  subject  to  the  caprice  or  the  necessity 
of  another  man's  life.  Workers  thus  subjected  to  the  new 
conditions  sought  to  protect  themselves  by  association, 
and  the  labor  unions  sprang  into  being  in  America.  But 
the  small  shop  has  gone,  and  the  factory  town  has  taken 
possession  of  the  factory  business,  and  the  factory  toiler 
is  the  victim  of  the  factory  system. 

Just  what  has  taken  place  in  the  department  of  manu- 
factures is  beginning  to  take  place  in  agriculture  and  in 
commerce.  When  the- employe  in  the  factory  town  un- 
dertook by  organization  to  obtain  for  himself  a  larger 
share  of  the  products  of  his  labor  the  merchant  and  the 
farmer  took  sides  with  the  manufacturer  and  against  the 
toiler.  But  now  the  bonanza  corporation  farm  and  the 
department  store  are  bringing  the  same  bitter  experience 
to  the  merchant  and  the  farmer  as  the  manufacturing  la- 
borer has  borne  for  years.  The  small  shop  was  destroyed 
by  the  great  factory.  The  small  store  is  doomed  by  the 
department  store.  The  small  farm  cannot  endure  the 
competition  of  the  corporation  set  to  work  in  agriculture. 
Two  years  ago  the  Protective  Retailers'  Association 
in  Chicago  undertook  by  combination  to  thwart  the  work 
of  the  department  store,  but  the  department  store  has  con- 
tinued to  grow,  it  has  added  new  buildings,  new  floors  in 
old  buildings,  it  has  even  added  manufacturing,  it  is  ex- 
tending its  lines,  it  is  taking  possession  of  the  field.  And 
the  retail  store  on  a  small  scale  which  protested  against 
this  destruction  of  the  family  store  by  the  department 
store,  ow^ned  and  managed  by  a  corporation,  is  going  out 
of  business,  is  standing  vacant.    The  children  in  the  fam- 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    THE    UNEMPLOYED.  IJ 

ily  that  owned  it  have  gone  to  live  with  relatives,  the  wife 
has  gone  to  her  mother,  the  protesting  merchant  is  a  clerk, 

or  a  tramp. 

Two  vears  ago  in  Toronto,  Canada,  an  mdignation 
meeting  was  held  by  the  small  merchants.    They  told  the 
story  of  the  certain  ruin  which  was  coming  to  them.  How 
the  small  store  was  ovsned  and  managed  by  the  head  of  a 
family,  how  he  sold  his  goods  to  his  immediate  neighbors, 
how  he  aided  them,  talked  with  them,  knew  them,  gave 
them  credit,  shared  their  losses,  but  out  of  these  services 
gathered  a  living  for  himself  and  family.    They  told  the 
storv  of  how  the  department  store  had  come,  how  a  young 
girl,' wanting  spending  money,  was  selling  goods  in  com- 
petition with  the  head  of  a  family,  how  the  small  store 
feeding  a  family  was  obliged  to  compete  with  a  young  girl 
working  for  spending  money  only,  how  the  department 
store  capitalized  the  girl's  labor,  put  her  in  a  central  sta- 
tion, put  exhaustless  funds  back  of  her,  surrounded  her 
with  a  measureless  stock  of  goods,  cut  down  the  prices, 
made  it  impossible  for  the  small  store  with  a  family  to 
support  to  do  business  in  competition  with  this  great 
institution.  The  indignation  meeting  was  on  Friday  night. 
On  Saturdav  night  the  greatest  department  store  of  the 
citv  went  up  in  flames.    On  :Monday  the  press  of  the  city 
said  what  had  been  on  everybody's  lips  from  the  hour  of 
the  burning,  that  the  building  had  been  set  on  fire  by 
some  one  wrought  to  a  frenzy  by  the  indignation  of  the 
ruined  traders.     But  the  smoke  that  curled  above  the 
ruins  had  not  died  away  when  work  was  commenced 
again  on  larger  plans  and  for  a  larger  store,  to  continue 
the  business  at  the  old  stand,  and  to  continue  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  small  dealers. 

If  the  country  shop  can  be  restored  and  the  factory 
town  destroyed,  possibly  the  department  store  could  be 
overborne  and  the  small  store  still  given  a  chance.  Biit 
the  countrv  shop  cannot  be  restored,  the  small  store  is 
doomed.  The  \Vorld  has  outgrown  both  of  then:;  and 
what  is  true  of  them  is  equally  true  of  the  farmer.  Large 
capital,  perfect  equipment,  scientific  processes,  smallest 
possible  expenses — apply  these  things  to  agriculture  and 


l8  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

the  farmer  is  ruined.  These  things  are  being  applied  to 
agriculture,  and  its  ruin  is  inevitable.  It  has  been 
proven  beyond  doubt  that  in  the  Central  Western  States 
it  is  impossible  to  produce  beef,  or  wheat,  or  wool,  and 
sell  them  in  the  market  for  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  the 
cost  of  production.  This  is  not  an  exception  of  a  gen- 
eral rule,  it  is  the  rule  itself.  This  is  not  true  in  a  poor 
year,  it  is  the  general  average ;  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
produce  these  things  and  sell  them  for  enough  to  cover 
the  cost  of  their  production. 

How  will  a  small  farmer  provide  for  his  living,  for  his 
children,  for  their  education,  for  the  things  which  women 
and  children  care  for,  if  he  cannot  even  provide  the  cost 
of  his  own  labor.  Condemn  idleness  as  you  will,  there  is 
many  a  farmer  who  would  find  it  more  profitable  than  in- 
dustry, there  is  many  a  farmer  whose  losses  are  to  be 
measured  not  by  his  negligence  nor  his  idleness  nor  his 
indolence,  but  by  his  industry.  He  has  lost,  not  because 
he  has  not  toiled,  but  because  he  has.  He  is  ruined,  not 
because  he  has  undertaken  too  much,  but  because  he  has 
undertaken  the  commonest  tasks,  has  continued  to  do  at 
a  loss  the  things  he  had  formerly  done  at  a  profit. 

Here  is  a  farmer.  He  has  a  wife  and  three  children. 
His  children  are  in  school,  there  are  musical  instruments, 
a  library,  the  usual  periodicals,  there  are  clothing,  and 
food,  the  church  and  the  school,  the  expenses  of  main- 
taining and  providing  for  all  the  things  which  come  to  an 
ambitious  and  capable  family.  From  whence  is  he  to  pro- 
vide these  things?  From  the  returns  of  his  own  labor  on 
his  own  land.  And  when  in  the  market  he  sells  these  pro- 
ducts and  counts  the  cost  of  production,  before  he  can 
make  a  sale  sufficient  to  provide  for  his  home  there  must 
be  put  on  to  the  price  of  the  things  he  sells  a  sum  sufli- 
cient  to  cover  all  these  expenses.  The  cost  of  living  for 
his  family  is  to  him  a  part  of  the  cost  of  producing  on  his 
farm. 

^  But  take  another  farm.  There  are  fifty  thousand  acres 
in  it,  and  within  all  its  borders  is  not  a  woman,  nor  a  c  hild, 
nor  a  church,  nor  a  school.  There  are  no  public  roads 
even,  there  is  nothing  that  hints  of  civilization.     There 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    THE    UNEMPLOYED.  IQ 

are  barracks  for  the  men  in  the  time  of  seeding,  and  of 
harvest.  What  are  the  costs  for  production  on  such  a 
farm?  The  old-fashioned  farming  must  provide  for  at 
least  a  thousand  families  on  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land 
managed  on  the  old  plan,  but  here  is  fifty  thousand  acres 
of  land  without  a  family  to  be  cared  for,  without  a  s:hool 
to  be  supported,  without  a  church  to  be  constructed,  Vvdth- 
out  a  teacher  to  be  fed,  without  a  preacher  to  be  cared  for, 
without  a  musical  instrument  to  be  kept  in  tune,  without 
a  periodical  to  be  paid  for,  without  a  book  to  be  pur- 
chased, without  a  thing  which  ministers  to  the  better  and 
higher  life  of  man.  The  one  that  can  produce  the  most 
and  do  it  the  cheapest  will  possess  the  market.  The  cor- 
poration farm  can  produce  the  most,  can  do  it  the  cheap- 
est and  does  possess  the  market.  What  becomes  of  the 
old-fashioned  farmer?  What  is  the  fate  of  the  women  and 
the  children?  Where  must  the  church  and  the  school  go 
to?  What  must  become  of  the  civilization  built  on  the 
small  shop  and  the  small  store  and  the  small  farm  as  the 
basis  of  its  support? 

I  rode  sixteen  miles  in  the  Sacramento  Valley  past  the 
side  of  a  single  field,  and  on  the  other  side  of  me  was 
another  wheatfield  just  as  long  and  just  as  large.  There 
were  no  fences,  no  houses,  not  even  cottages  for  the 
workmen.  Wild  geese  threatened  the  growing  wheat. 
Patrols  rode  on  horseback  carrying  a  rifle,  firing  into  any 
flock  of  geese  which  attempted  to  settle  in  the  fields  to  be- 
gin the  work  of  destruction.  These  wandering  patrol- 
men watching  the  geese,  they  and  the  geese  were  the  only 
population.  In  the  spring  time  the  seeding  was  done 
with  great  machinery,  in  the  harvest  time  a  huge  machine 
clipped  ofif  the  heads  of  the  grain,  threshed  it,  winnowed 
it,  sacked  it.  It  only  remains  to  add  a  machine  to  grind 
it  and  bake  it  and  eat  it,  and  the  whole  circle  will  be  com- 
plete by  a  single  going  over  of  the  ground.  W^hen  they 
plow  these  fields  a  gang  of  eight  plows  mounted  on 
wheels  drawn  by  sixteen  mules  starts  in  the  morning  away 
from  the  sunrise,  and  drives  steadily  onw-ard  without  a 
turn  or  stop  until  midday,  when  they  camp  and  feed,  and 
drive  back  again  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  day's  work  is 


20  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

over.  In  all  this  vvork  there  is  but  one  man,  and  sixteen 
mules.  He  walks  up  and  down  the  line  of  the  mules, 
swinging  his  whip,  breaking  prairie,  and  the  ten  com- 
mandments. What  can  a  small  farmer  with  his  narrow 
fields,  with  his  small  planting,  with  his  petty  undertak- 
ings, and  his  family  to  support,  what  can  he  do  com- 
peting with  corporations  operating  on  lines  like  these? 

Think  in  another  line  for  a  moment.  From  the  man- 
ual training  schools  the  young  graduates  have  been 
caught  up  and  hurried  away  to  the  shops,  and  have  been 
given  the  positions  of  superintendents  over  the  men  who 
learned  their  trades  pounding  away  in  the  shops.  The 
scientific  workman  is  at  a  premium  in  the  great  factory. 
The  scientific  workman  is  the  coming  master  of  agricul- 
ture on  the  corporation  farm,  as  he  is  already  of  manufac- 
tures in  the  corporation  shop.  There  is  not  one  place 
where  the  single  individual  with  the  tools  he  can  use,  the 
land  he  can  cultivate,  or  the  materials  he  can  work  upon 
on  any  farm  or  in  any  shop  or  in  any  store — there  is  not 
one  single  place  where  the  single-handed  worker  standing 
alone  working  for  himself  and  family — there  is  no  place 
where  such  a  worker  stands  to-day  able  to  secure  a  bare 
existence  where  a  corporation  cannot  follow  him,  put  into 
the  enterprise  perfect  organization,  plenty  of  capital, 
scientific  management,  and  gather  dividends  for  stock- 
holders where  the  single-handed  worker  can  gather  only 
crusts  for  himself  and  little  ones.  The  agricultural  schools 
of _  the  country  are  turning  out  their  graduates,  but  the 
scientific  farmer  is  not  re-enforcing  the  small  farmer.  He 
goes  from  the  schools  to  be  a  superintendent  of  a  corpo- 
ration farm.  A  single  orchard  in  Michigan  has  thirty- 
two  thousand  peach  trees.  A  single  orchard  in  Missouri 
has  seventy-five  thousand  trees.  A  single  orchard  in  Con- 
necticut has  fifty  thousand  trees, — all  owned  by  corpora- 
tions. No  farms,  no  homes,  no  schools.  Simply  the  fac- 
tory system  applied  to  the  orchard.  Where  is  the  small 
fruit-grower  going  along  with  the  rest? 

Do  not  misunderstand  all  this.  I  am  not  condemning 
machinery,  I  am  not  complaining  at  organizations,  I  am 
not  objecting  to  the  market.    The  world  only  turns  one 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    THE    UNEMPLOYED.  21 

way,  I  could  not  turn  it  back  by  trying,  I  am  not  going  to 
try     I  do  not  want  the  old  New  England,  I  do  not  want 
the  small  shops.     I  am  not  anxious  for  re-establishmg 
the  small  farm,  nor  even  the  small  store,  notwithstandmg 
all  the  sorrow  which  its  destruction  mvolves.     ihere  is 
no  use  trying  to  rebuild  it,  its  day  is  over,  it  can  never 
come  back  any  more.    I  am  not  contending  that  organi- 
zation is  wrong,  I  believe  it  is  necessary.    1  am  not  con- 
tending that  labor-saving  machinery  is  a  misfortune,  i  be- 
lieve it  is  a  blessing.    I  am  not  complaining  because  prop- 
erty is  held  sacred.  I  would  have  it  more  sacred  rather 
than  less  so.    I  am  only  contending  that  the  most  sacred 
thin-  in  all  this  world  is  a  human  being.    I  am  in  favor  ot 
eoin^  forward,  not  backward,  of  completing  the  new,  not 
attempting  to  rebuild  the  old.    I  only  complain  because, 
in  the  factory,  on  the  farm,  and  in  the  store,  not  that  dol- 
lars are  made  sacred,  not  that  property  is  made  of  high 
consideration,  but  that  the  motive  running  through  them 
all  is  for  dividends,  is  for  profits,  is  for  the  accumulation  of 
wealth,  is  for  the  possession  of  things.    When  the  new 
dav  comes  to  us,  when  the  new  light  falls  into  all  places 
that  are  dark,  when  the  new  joy  fills  all  the  hearts  that 
are  sad,  we  shall  have  organization,  we  shall  have  ma- 
chinery, we  shall  have  wealth.    They  will  not  be  less  sa- 
cred than  now,  they  will  be  more  sacred.    They  will  be 
dearer  then  than  now,  because  then  they  will  not  be  used 
to  destroy  men,  they  will  not  be  used  to  destroy  society, 
they  will  not  be  used  to  manufacture  millionaires  and 
tramps,  they  will  not  be  used  to  make  beggars  and  crimi- 
nals    Then  property  will  not  be  less  sacred  than  now,  it 
will  be  more  sacred,  but  it  will  not  be  so  sacred  as  a  hu- 
man life.  ^  .,  ^       ,      ^  'J.  •    ^u 

An  ancient  teacher  took  a  little  child  and  set  it  m  the 
midst  of  them  (here  Mr.  Mills  called  up  a  small  boy  and 
stood  with  his  hand  on  his  head,  continuing).  An  an- 
cient teacher  called  up  a  little  child  and  set  it  m  the  midst 
of  them,  that  his  disciples  might  learn  from  the  helpless 
child  who  stood  in  the  midst.  I  believe  that  all  contracts 
are  binding.  I  believe  that  all  deeds  should  be  respected. 
I  believe  that  all  mortgages  have  authority.    I  believe  in 


22  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

property,  I  believe  that  man  should  keep  faith  with  his 
fellowman ;  but  when  any  contract,  any  mortgage,  any 
institution  which  society  builds,  any  document  which 
man  can  execute,  when  these  things  involve  the  robbing 
of  childhood,  the  pitiless  destruction  of  the  little  ones, 
then  the  throbbing  heart  in  this  child's  breast  is  more 
sacred,  more  divine,  and  the  obligation  to  protect  it  and 
secure  it  from  harm  a  more  serious  consideration  than 
all  things  else  combined. 


THE  UNEMPLOYED. 

Two  weeks  ago  we  discussed  the  subject  of  "The  Chil- 
dren of  the  Unemployed."  To-day  we  will  study  for  a 
while  the  problem  of  the  unemployed  themselves.  I  shall 
not  take  any  time  in  endeavoring  to  prove  that  there  are 
capable,  honest,  worthy  people,  both  men  and  women, 
anxious  to  earn  a  living,  and  absolutely  unable  to  secure 
an  opportunity  to  do  so.  There  are  people  still  who  con- 
tend that  if  there  are  unemployed  it  is  the  fault  of  the  un- 
employed themselves,  that  the  problem  of  the  unemployed 
is  one  of  changing  the  character  of  the  people  who  are  out 
of  employment,  that  those  of  us  who  are  able  to  find  em- 
ployment and  to  care  for  ourselves  have  met  every  obliga- 
tion in  the  matter  in  caring  for  ourselves,  that  the  unem- 
ployed can  have  no  claims  against  us.  It  is  another  state- 
ment of  the  old  doctrine,  "each  man  for  himself,"  and  a 
contention  that  when  each  man  is  for  himself  those  who 
are  unable  to  take  care  of  themselves  are  unable  to  do  so 
solely  because  of  their  own  faults,  not  because  of  the 
faults  of  others,  not  because  of  social  misadjustments 
rather  than  because  of  individual  shortcomings.  But  the 
people  who  take  this  view  are  so  ignorant  of  the  general 
social  questions,  that  we  have  not  time  enough  to  give 
them  a  sufficient  amount  of  instruction  on  this  occasion 
to  enable  them  to  understand  what  shall  be  said  further 
on,  or  else  the  trouble  is  not  one  of  ignorance,  but  of  de- 
liberate and  hardhearted  misstatement. 

The  time  was  when  all  men  found  employment.  Once 
when  each  man  was  working  for  himself  with  the  rude 
tools  of  primitive  life,  when  the  natural  wages  of  labor 
were  the  total  products  of  the  laborer,  and  again,  under 
slavery,  the  only  way  the  owner  could  secure  the  benefit 


24 


EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 


of  the  slave's  labor  was  to  keep  him  at  work.  The  round 
of  production  was  large,  the  social  unit  and  the  plantation 
were  largely  identical.  Whatever  the  slave  produced  the 
master  could  consume,  or  waste,  and  so  while  all  the 
trades  were  carried  on  by  slaves  organized  on  great  plan- 
tations, and  the  products  of  their  labor  beyond  their  bare 
existence  belonged  to  their  masters  for  their  masters' 
waste  or  use,  there  could  be  no  large  class  of  the  unem- 
ployed. 

But  slavery  is  dead.  Men  no  longer  buy  and  sell 
their  brothers  in  the  market.  They  only  buy  and  sell  the 
products  of  their  brothers'  toil.  Whenever  the  buying 
and  selling  proves  unprofitable  production  ceases  and  the 
laborer  starves.  To  say  that  the  unemployed  are  respon- 
sible for  their  idleness  is  to  say  that  the  unemployed  are 
responsible  for  maintaining  a  profitable  m.arket  for  the 
products  of  their  labor.  The  unemployed  have  no  voice 
in  the  market,  no  power  to  control  it,  no  ability  to  fix  its 
prices,  no  share  in  determining  the  nature  of  the  product, 
or  the  use  to  which  it  shall  be  devoted.  The  men  who 
manage  the  market  are  rarely  producers.  Alternately 
through  the  years  the  market  rises  and  falls,  revives  and 
fails,  a  rebuilt  and  a  broken  market.  These  run  through 
the  years,  and  while  the  men  who  manage  the  market, 
or  who  suppose  they  are  managing  it,  are  unable  to  keep 
a  steady  demand  for  the  product  of  labor,  they  treat 
with  contempt  for  idleness  the  very  men  whose  employ- 
ment depends  upon  the  maintenance  of  a  market  which 
the  merchant  pretends  to  manage,  but  the  worker  cannot. 

Labor-saving  machinery  has  come  into  the  world. 
V>y  it  the  productiveness  of  labor  has  been  multiplied 
many  fold.  But  under  the  slave  system  the  share  of  the 
worker  was  not  the  amount  of  his  product,  but  the  share 
which  would  barely  cover  such  physical  existence  as 
would  make  it  possible  for  him  to  keep  to  his  task.  Under 
the  iron  law  of  wages  no  better  provision  is  made  for  the 
worker,  for  that  law  is  that  wages  tend  to  diminish  to  the 
lowest  point  where  the  worker  shall  still  be  able  to  sur- 
vive. Under  slavery,  and  under  the  wage  system,  the 
share  of  the  laborer  was  not,  and  is  not,  the  amount  of 


THE    UNEMPLOYED.  25 

his  products.  It  is  only  such  a  share  as  ^vill  keep  him  in 
working  condition.  Under  the  slave  system  employment 
was  regular,  provision  was  perpetual.  But  under  the 
wage  system,  under  the  operation  of  machinery  wages 
are  paid  only  while  the  wheels  turn.  The  wheels  can 
move  onlv  while  the  market  lasts.  While  he  works  he 
is  paid  sufficient  to  keep  him  alive  and  at  his  task.  When 
the  machine  stands  still  the  worker  may  starve.  He  can- 
not work  until  the  machine  starts,  he  cannot  start  the 
machine.  Who  is  responsible  for  the  n.achine  standing 
still?  Who  shall  be  able  to  move  its  wheels  in  such  a 
way  that  they  may  never  be  obliged  to  stop  while  men 
and  women,  anxious  to  toil,  are  compelled  to  starve? 

Before  any  two  workers  can  possibly  exchange  their 
products  in  the  market  under  the  present  system  it  is  nec- 
essary for  both  of  them  first  to  convert  their  products 
into  cash,  and  afterwards  each  may  make  such  pur- 
chases as  he  may  desire;  therefore  the  possibility  of  in- 
dustry is  bound  by  the  volume  of  the  money  actually  in 
existence  and  available  for  business.  Whatever  changes 
the  volume  of  money  as  related  to  the  volume  of  pro- 
ducts disturbs  the  basis  on  which  the  products  of  labor 
exchange  for  each  other  in  the  market,  and  whatever  dis- 
turbs that  relation  m.ust  necessarily  bring  confusion  to 
business  and  put  a  brake  on  the  wheels  of  industry.  But 
worse  than  this,  when  debts  are  made  or  when  present 
products  are  paid  out  in  one  direction  for  future  products 
to  be  paid  back  in  the  other,  and  when  the  measure  by 
which  repayment  is  made  has  been  so  changed  as  to  in- 
volve the  payment  of  either  a  larger  or  smaller  share  of 
the  products  of  labor  than  was  required  to  create  the 
debt  in  the  first  place,  again  a  wrong  is  done,  business  is 
disturbed,  and  a  brake  is  on  the  wheels  of  industry.  Wise 
men  do  not  contend  that  the  restoration  of  money  will 
solve  all  the  problems  and  turn  aside  all  the  evils  under 
which  society  suffers.  But  it  is  contended  that  to  cut 
of?  one-half  of  the  source  of  money  supply  has  seriously 
deranged  all  business  aflfairs  by  multiplying  the  exchange 
value  of  all  debts,  taxes,  street  car  fares,  fixed  charges 
of  every  sort,  as  measured  against  all  products  of  labor. 


26  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

But  under  the  wage  system,  under  high  tariff  and  un- 
der low  tariff,  under  protection  and  under  free  trade,  un- 
der the  gold  standard  and  the  double  standard,  the  busi- 
ness crisis  has  arisen,  stagnation  has  occurred  to  trade, 
the  wheels  of  industry  have  been  stilled.  Men  have 
starved,  not  because  they  were  unwilling  to  toil,  but  be- 
cause depending  on  the  market  the  market  had  broken 
and  the  opportunity  to  earn  a  living  had  been  taken  away 
from  them.  It  is  not  exactly  correct,  but  it  is  near  enough 
for  the  sake  of  argument,  to  say  that  one-half  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  labor  goes  to  the  laborer  in  wages,  and  the  other 
half  in  payment  of  interests,  rents  and  profits.  In  this 
connection  it  is  quite  possible  that  some  man  has  indi- 
vidually and  wilfully  done  some  wrong  thing.  I  insist 
that  the  real  fault  is  not  with  the  man,  not  with  the  cor- 
poration, not  with  the  individual,  nor  anywhere  but  with 
the  system  by  which  society  organizes  its  market,  not  for 
the  purpose  of  directly  securing  the  welfare  of  all  the 
people,  but  profits  for  a  portion  of  the  people.  If  the 
worker  is  able  to  buy  back  only  one-half  of  his  products, 
who  shall  buy  the  other  half?  The  employer  and  those 
who  belong  to  the  employing  classes  are  the  only  pur- 
chasers left,  but  they  cannot  use  the  other  half,  they  are 
not  numerous  enough.  Exchange  must  stop  when  the 
purchase  stops.  Under  slavery  the  producing  slave-own- 
er, under  the  feudal  system  the  feudal  lord  was  usually  a 
producer  of  many  things.  He  could  waste,  consume,  de- 
stroy in  riotous  living  in  a  single  banquet  the  products 
of  many  months  of  toil,  and  these  products  would  have 
been  the  direct  results  of  the  toil  of  his  gangs  of  slaves. 

But  under  our  system  the  producer  produces  but  one 
thing.  The  great  shop  that  turns  out  pig  iron  if  there  is 
no  market  for  pig  iron,  if  the  wage  workers  can  furnish 
a  market  for  only  one-half,  the  owners  cannot  get  to- 
gether and  use  up  the  other  half  of  the  pig  iron  in  riotous 
living.  They  could  not  wear  it  for  ornaments,  they  could 
not  use  it  at  a  banquet,  they  could  not  make  use  of  it  in 
providing  luxurious  apartments  for  their  dwellings.  It 
is  not  possible  for  them  to  so  extend  their  own  living  ex- 
penses that  they  could  use  one  single  ton  of  pig  iron  as 


THE    UNEMPLOYED.  27 

the  result  of  such  a  purpose.  The  only  way  the  managing 
producer  of  pig  iron  can  convert  his  pig  iron  into  a  ban- 
quet is  to  first  send  it  through  the  market.  If  he  could 
get  it  through  the  market  he  could  keep  his  shop  going. 
If  he  cannot  get  it  through  the  market  and  keep  his  shop 
going,  neither  can  he  get  it  through  the  market  in  such 
a  way  as  to  convert  it  into  the  means  of  riotous  and 
wasteful  habits.  When  he  cannot  sell  what  he  produces 
he  must  stop  his  machinery,  he  must  close  his  shop,  he 
must  wait  for  his  profits,  his  workers  must  wait  for  bread. 
The  workers  can  buy  but  one-half,  the  employer  could 
buy  the  other  half,  but  he  can  not  use  it.  therefore  he  will 
not  buy  it.  What  shall  we  do  with  this  surplus  product 
that  the  shop  produces  that  the  workingmen  cannot  buy, 
that  the  capitalist  cannot  use? 

There  are  a  variety  of  answers.  One  is,  that  the  sur- 
plus rises  not  from  our  own  shops,  but  from  the  products 
of  foreign  labor  sold  to  us  in  a  market  not  sufficiently 
protected  by  a  tariff  wall.  But  the  trouble  is  that  our 
own  shops  inside  the  wall  produce  twice  as  much  as  our 
own  workers  inside  the  wall  are  able  to  buy.  If  not  able 
to  buy  the  surplus  of  our  own  shops,  if  the  products  of 
our  own  shops  are  sufficient  to  break  our  own  market,  ex- 
cluding the  foreign  importer  may  postpone  the  day  of 
the  disaster,  but  it  cannot  avert  it. 

Another  answer  is,  we  are  to  seek  a  foreign  market  for 
the  surplus  of  our  goods.  How  shall  we  sell  these  goods 
in  a  foreign  market?  Exchange  them  for  the  products 
of  foreign  workers.  What  shall  be  done  with  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  foreign  workers  for  which  we  exchange  our 
0)\vn  product?  Bring  them  back  here.  If  s<o,  w.ho  s'hall 
buy  them?  What  advantage  to  th'e  country  to  simply  ship 
the  products  of  our  labor  abroad  and  leave  tsliem  tiliere? 
But  the  answer  is,  that  we  will  ship  our  wheat  to  England, 
and  England  will  ship  her  jack-knives  back  to  this  coun- 
try. American  laborers  can  buy,  we  will  say,  one-half  the 
wheat.  Englis'h  laborers,  we  will  say,  can  buy  one-half 
the  jack-knives.  How  shall  the  Englishman  find  a  mar- 
ket for  his  jack-knives?  How  shall  the  American  find  a 
market  for  his  wheat?    In-ternational  trade  will  convert 


28  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

Amierican  'wheat  into  English  jack-knives.  But  vi^-ho  sihall 
buy  the  jack-knives?  The  American  laborer  has  ex- 
hausted his  purdhasing  power  when  he  has  bought  the 
half  he  has  already  purchased.  Can  he  buy  it  easier,  now 
that  the  wheat  wihich  he  could  not  buy  has  been  converted 
into  jack-knives?  But  the  capitalists  will  take  the  jack- 
knives.  But  they  cannot  use  them.  If  each  one  carried  a 
'hundred  jack-knives  in  his  pocket  there  w^ould  still  be  a 
surplus,  unsalable  and  glutting  the  market.  In  England 
the  same  thing  is  true  with  American  wheat.  The  English 
w^orking-man  has  exhausted  his  purchasing  power  when 
he  has  bought  one-half  of  his  own  products.  How  sihall 
he  still  be  able  to  buy  because  international  exchange  has 
converted  the  'half  'he  oould  not  buy  into  something  else? 
There  is  absolutely  no  way  by  which  tihe  worker's  share 
of  .the  products  of 'his  labor  shall  be  less  than  the  whole  of 
what  he  produces,  and  yet  the  occasional  crash,  the'  break- 
ing of  tihe  market,  the  closing  of  the  shop  and  the  disaster 
of  the  unemployed  still  be  averted.  The  market  breaks 
because  productive  power  and  purchasing  power  do  not 
correspond.  When  all  the  men  shall  be  able  to  produce 
to  their  full  capacity,  and  buy  to  the  full  measure  of  their 
ability  to  produce,  the  breaking  of  the  market,  the  de- 
struction of  business,  the  army  of  the  unemployed  may  be 
discontinued. 

How  sihall  we  manage  this?  What  is  the  solution  of 
this  problem?  There  are  other  solutions  than  those  we 
ihave  suggested,  but  w*hen  we  ask  for  a  solution  we  must 
have  sometihing  in  view.  To  some  the  problem  of  the  un- 
employed is  a  question  of  maintaining  t'he  public  order. 
To  others  providing  for  the  comfort  of  all  the  workers. 
I  do  not  believe  that  either  of  these  is  a  sufifi'cient  solution 
of  the  problem.  When  peace  is  provided,  though  men 
continue  to  starve,  the  problem  of  the  unemployed  is 
solved  from  tJhe  standpoint  of  the  standing  army.  We 
are  not  any  longer  asked  to  maintain  soldiers  to  fight 
Canada  or  whip  ^lexico,  or  to  -meet  a  foreign  war.  It  is 
to  maintain  the  peace  in  our  own  great  industrial  centers. 
What  with?  With  a  gatling  gun.  But  suppose  the  army 
of  the  unemployed,  starving  in  their  despair,  grow  frenzied 


THE    UNEMPLOYED.  29 

in  their  grief  and  ask  for  bread  and  refuse  ar.y  longer  to 
die  outside  the  granaries  crowded  with  wheat  sprouting 
and  rotting  while  it  waits  for  a  market?  Suppose  disorder 
s'hould  arise,  suppose  tihe  gatling  gun  should  be  called  into 
play  ?  Suppose  the  last  life  'has  been  swept  out  of  existence 
and  the  peace  of  death  'has  silenced  the  disorder  which 
arose  from  the  army  of  the  unemployed?  Is  the  grave- 
yard a  sufficient  solution?  Is  a  deaiih  charge  the  only 
answer?  It  is  the  answer  of  the  suicide,  it  is  the  con- 
fession of  failure.  The  gatling  gun  may  kill  the  unein- 
ploved,  it  cannot  solve  Ohe  problem  of  their  employment. 

Suppose,  again,  the  granaries  were  opened,  that  the 
\Vheat  was  poured -out,  that  the  bakers  were  set  to  work, 
that  bread  was  thrown  in  the  way  of  every  one .  Suppose 
the  relation  between  what  a  man  does  and  what  a  man 
has  s'hould  be  broken,  and  abandoned,  and  forgotten. 
Suppose  all  that  slhould  happen.  Does  it  settle  anything? 
To  be  sure,  men  will  not  starve  while  tihe  granaries  last, 
but  to  be  .sure  again,  eating  without  working  will  be  a 
disaster  not  less  terrible  to  the  real  interests  of  mankind 
than  working  without  eating 'has  already  been  fonnd  to  be. 
The  real  difficulty  lies  further  back  than  simply  feeding 
the  hungry,  or  clothing  tJhe  ragged.  The  relationsliip  be- 
tween -what  a  man  does  and  what  he  possesses  has  been 
broken  by  the  wage  system ;  for  those  who  do  not,  have, 
and  those  who  do,  have  not. 

Any  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  unemployed  which 
gives  uneamed  to  the  toiler,  as  the  present  system'  gives 
unearned  to  others,  will  be  a  solution  which  mav  save  the 
individual  from  starvation,  but  it  cannot  save  society  from 
disaster.  The  most  serious  charge  against  the  present 
condition  of  things  is  not.  after  all,  that  it  clothes  the 
bodies  of  men  with  rags,  and  leaves  their  stomachs  unfilled 
with  food.  The  saddest  thing  of  all  is  that  it  fills  their 
hearts  with  hatred,  that  it  debars  them  from  an  intellectual 
and  social  life,  tfhat  even  when  employed  it  onlv  provid-es 
for  a  man  a  livelihood  on  the  basis  of  a  beast.  No  solution 
of  the  problem  of  the  unemployed  is  sufficient  which 
maintains  the  peace  with  a  gatling  gun.  or  secures  the 
comfort  even  of  those  who  sufifer  now  by  giving  bread 


30  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

instead  of  bullets.  No  solution  will  be  sufficient  wliic'h 
does  not  provide  that  the  benefits  of  machinery 
shall  accrue,  not  to  those  who  toil  not,  but  to  those  who 
do ;  that  its  presence  shall  come  not  to  turn  out  of  employ- 
mant  one  company  of  people  by  increasmg"  the  productive 
ability  of  another  company  of  people,  nor  to  compel  all 
toilers  to  have  no  security  even  for  their  daily  bread  save 
the  chances  of  a  market  about  which  there  i-s  but  one 
absolute  certainty,  and  tihat  is,  that  sooner  or  later  it  mdrst 
break,  and  break  again,  and  break  again.  The  solution  of 
this  problem  must  involve  that  labor-saving  machinery 
shall  first  of  all  save  labor,  save  the  laborer.  His  hours 
must  be  shortened,  'his  s'hare  of  the  products  must  be 
increased.  He  must  be  his  own  employer,  ^he  must  be  a 
part  owner  of  his  own  tools,  he  must  be  his  awn  landlord. 
Industrial  democracy  will  make  him  his  own  boss.  When 
a  comfortable  physical  existence  has  been  secured,  may 
the  time  hasten  when  instead  of  seardhing  the  world  ixxmd 
for  an  impossible  market  for  an  unsalable  surplus,  he  may 
find  his  surplus  in  leisure  for  the  cultivation  of  his  mind, 
for  the  possession  of  the  best  graces  of  this  human  life  of 
ours,  for  living  an  intellectual  and  a  social  Hfe,  for  having 
a  man's  share  in  the  things  that  belong  to  a  main's  life. 
This  will  be  seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,  and  then  all  other  things  a  hundred  fold 
more  abundant  to  all  men  will  be  speedily  added.  The 
demand  of  the  worker  after  all,  is  for  leisure,  not  foT  labor; 
is  for  books,  not. for  bread.  It  is  for  a  man's  sfhare,  not  for 
a  beast's  provisions.  To  have  some  share  in  winning  a 
victory  so  splendid  is  an  ambition  wortjhy  of  the  most 
splendid  manhood. 


JUDICIAL    CONSPIRACY    AS    A    FACTOR    IN 

POLITICS.* 

The  changes  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  life 
during  the  past  century  have  been  more  marvelous  in  their 
forims  tihan  during  any  oth-er  dozen  cenituries  in  Ohe  history 
of  the  world.  Laws  enacted  and  institutions  w'hich  were 
created  to  protect  life  and  property  under  old  indAJsitrial, 
commercial  and  social  conditions  must  be  S'O  changed  that 
t<be  new  s-ocial  and  industrial  life  may  conform  to  tihe  new 
forces  at  work  in  industr}-  and  commerce,  and  at  the 
•same  time  preserve  the  common  rights  and  provide  for 
the  common  welfare  of  us  all.  To-morrow  is  forever  the 
child  of  yesterday.  New  institutions  are  forever  born  out 
of  old  ones.  The  world's  new  life  is  forever  the  saime  old 
life,  only  it  has  seen  the  new  morning  of  its  resurrection. 
The  man  -w^ho  entertains  contempt  for  what  was  is  dis^ 
qualified  from  'having  any  safe  and  proper  s'hare  in  build- 
ing what  ought  to  be.  Whoever  entertains  contempt  for 
our  past  cannot  be  trusted  to  determine  our  future.  Who- 
ever despises  the  institutions  which  are  cannot  be  trusted 
to  build  the  institutions  which  ought  to  be.  The  future  is 
only  one  of  the  past  yesterdays.  It  is  onlv  when  the  old 
form,  insufficient  to  meet  and  deal  with  present  life,  per- 
sists in  outliving  its  usefulness  that  we  must  combine  to 
change  it,  becaaise  we  have  seen  the  picture  of  t(he  more 
splendid  life  which  is  to  be.  * 

Whoever  ignores  the  authorities  of  society  as  estab- 
lished and  the  officers  of  her  law  as  administered,  no  mat- 
ter how  far  these  may  fall  short  of  justice,  is  not  qualified 
to  write  the  new  laws  nor  to  administer  the  n^esv  institutionis 

•  This  address  was  delivered  at  Battery  D.  in  response  to  a  petition  of- 
ficially signed  by  more  than  one  hundred  labor  organizations  and  reform 
clubs,  including  alLorganizations  of  the  sort  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 

31 


32  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

when  liands  otyh'er  than  bheir  own  have  made  thiem  possi- 
ble. The  reformatiion  of  our  laws,  the  building  of  new 
social  usag-es,  the  establis'hmen't  of  new  indusitrial  institu- 
tions 'which  shall  conform  bo  the  marvelous  mechanical 
and  commercial  advancement  of  recent  3'ears  is  an  under- 
taking tioo  vast  and  serious  to  be  attempted  m  violence, 
in  passion  or  in  'hatred.  Government  has  a  right  to  exist 
because  society  has  a  right  to  provide  for  its  own  defense 
and  to  provide  for  the  common  welfare  of  its  citizens. 
Government  has  no  rigiht  bo  exist  unless  it  exists  ex- 
clusively for  the  purpose  of  defending  the  rights  of  all  and 
providing  for  tihe  general  welfare  of  all.  But  when  gov- 
ernment, coming  into  existence  for  that  reason,  fails  bo 
render  that  service,  it  forfeits  its  right  to  be. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  no  wild  piece 
of  oratory,  and  it  has  taught  the  world  that  government 
only  has  the  right  bo  exist  in  order  that  the  common  right 
and  the  common  welfare  of  all  people  may  be  provided 
for.  But  w*hen  conspiracy  takes  the  place  of  the  law, 
when  crime  and  riot  take  possession  of  the  agency  by 
which  civil  society  sibould  be  protected,  then  treason  is 
in  possession  of  the  forms  of  society,  and  patriotism  miust 
come  forward  with  reforms. 

Government  miust  conform  bo  present  conditions.  It 
is  said  that  if  you  plant  an  acorn  in  a  vase  one  of  twO' 
things  will  'happen.  The  tree  will  die  or  the  vase  will 
break.  Government  is  bo  society  as  t/he  vase  is  to  the 
acorn.  It  is  there  for  its  protection  and  it  iS'  there  for  its 
good,  but  it  must  yield  with  the  growing  life  of  the  acorn 
or  it  must  be  broken  in  pieces.  Government  is  like  the 
bark  upon  a  great  tree,  placed  there  for  its  protection. 
Within  its*embrace  flows  the  sweet  sap  that  feeds  the  new 
life  of  the  growing  forest,  but  the  bark  must  grow  with  the 
tree  or  it  will  be  broken  asunder. 

Governiment  is  as  a  mo'tiher  carrying  in  her  own  life  the 
'highest  authoritative  expression  of  the  life  of  the  race, 
carrying  in  her  bosom  the  seeds  of  a  new  life,  preseniting 
the  highest  embodiment  of  tihe  world's  best  life,  regarding 
w'hich  she  fondly  cherishes  as  the  dearest  -hope  of  her  life, 
the  hope  that  bhat  new  life  will  be  nobler  than  her  own. 


JUDICIAL    CONSriRACV.  33 

And  the  old  must  forever  bring  forth  the  new  or  both 
the  mouhcr  and  her  child  must  die  together. 

Loyalty  to  the  old  means  that  it  shall  fulfill  its  relation 
tot'hen-ewjor  the  days  that  are  have  claims  upon  us  as  well 
as  th€  memories  of  the  days  that  are  gone.  Govemniemt 
has  a  right  to  exist  because  it  protects  and  defends,  but 
when  the  agencies  of  the  law  are  used  unfairly  it  becomes 
the  duty  of  society  not  to  entertain  contempt  for  law,  not 
to  organize  disorder,  not  to  attempt  to  kill  out  the  old,  but 
wit>h  the  march  of  eternal  righteousness  within  their  hearts 
to  build,  and  build  for  a  certainty,  the  new  life  struggling 
for  the  betterment  of  mankind.  I  would  not  liave  you 
understand  that  I  am  contending  for  an  attack  on  govern- 
ment.   I  am  contending  for  obedience  to  t'he  law. 

But  governments  are  composed  of  men,  of  parties,  of 
conventions,  of  congresses,  of  cabinets.  The  personal 
ambition  of  those  in  power  is  forever  on  the  side  of  per- 
petuating the  old,  and  resisting  tjhe  new.  To  keep  what 
they  'have  is  safe;  for  them  to  yield  to  what  the  new  life 
demands  may  mea'n  personal  or  partisan  disaster.  Not 
from  courts  and  cabinets,  but  from  .the  life  of  the  multi- 
tudes, has  come  the  inspiration  and  t'he  pOAver  of  every 
great  advance.  Neither  those  in  office  nor  those  who  in 
the  struggle  have  risen  to  office  have  been  tihe  real  l3uilders 
of  new  civilizations.  In  all  great  contests  the  men  who 
were  the  burden  bearers  at  the  beginning  have  had  small 
share  in  the  hafvest  of  spoils  in  the  day  of  victory.  The 
spirit  of  self-seeking  may  perpetuate  the  old.  It  is  for- 
ever certain  that  the  world's  advances  shall  be  undertaken 
at  least  in  the  spirit  of  self-surrender. 

In  the  administration  of  government  as  organized  in 
this  country  it  is  in  the  legislative  department  where  ne«\v 
reforms  are  brought  into  being  and  power.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  court  to  enforce  what  is  written  on  the  statutes. 
The  merciful  judge  has  but  scant  opportunity  for  the  play 
of  his  mercy.  The  laws  are  not  enacted  bv  the  fudges. 
The  facts  are  not  of  his  creation.  He  finds  the  law  when 
he  eomes  to  his  place,  and  he  finds  the  facts  there  sub- 
mitted, and  it  is  the  idlest  sort  of  business  to  hate  a  judge, 
and  re-elect  again  and  againa  legislature  which  perpetuates 


34  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

and  authorizes  the  laws  that  the  hated  judg^e  must  oarry 
out,  and  continue  to  complain  at  the  things  wihioh  the 
hated  judge  has  done. 

He  is  set  to  do  certain  things.  He  did  not  write  the 
laws,  he  did  not  make  the  facts.  If  the  new  life  has  created 
new  conditions  to  which  the  old  law  does  not  apply,  if  the 
new  law  'has  -not  yet  been  wTitten,  the  authority  of  the 
court  may  be  invoked  to  do  great  injustice,  and  the  just 
judge  may  be  made  the  instrument  of  public  infamy.  Why 
complain  at  the  court  and  elect  again  and  again  leg-islative 
assemblies  to  perpetuate  old  laws  that  cannot  be  applied, 
to  administer  remedies  that  cannot  cure?  The  fault  is  by 
no  'means  that  of  the  court,  nor  is  it  the  fault  of  tihe  legis- 
lation It  is  tihe  fault  of  the  people  who  perpetuate  the 
assemibly,  which  perpetuates  the  law,  which  enforces  a 
public  or  a  private  wrong  in  t'he  name  of  justice.  If  unwise 
laws  are  enacted,  if  injustice  is  done  through  the  cburts  by 
the  authority  of  a  vicious  statute,  we  are  too  likely  to  hate 
the  judge,  and  to  continue  voting  for  the  party  in  power, 
which  alone  'has  tihe  authority  to  dry  up  the  sonrces  of 
the  wrongs  concerning  which  we  complain. 

By  judicial  conspiracy  as  a  factor  in  politics,  I  do  not 
mean  the  conspiracy  of  judges  to  misinterpret  laws,  not- 
withstanding that  may  be  so'metimes  done.  I  dO'  not 
mean  the  connivance  of  the  courts  in  the  unlawful  punish- 
ment of  the  innocent.  I  mean  the  conspiracy  of  cliques,  or 
parties,  or  factions,  or  corporations,  to  use  the  la-w  as  it  is 
on  the  statutes  to  destroy  in  politics  a  political  opponent, 
or  to  suppress  in  politics  an  unwelcome  agitation.  As'  the 
initiative  in  every  reform  must  look  to  tihe  legislative  de- 
partment to  embody  its  demands  in  law,  so  the  last  stroke 
of  every  old  abuse,  the  last  resort  of  everv^  old  wrong,  is 
in  this  misuse  of  the  courts  to  compass  and  destroy  the 
new  life  knocking  at  the  door  and  demanding  place  and 
power. 

I  stiall  review  to-day  a  number  of  historical  instances, 
that  we  may  know  that  the  mo'st  recent  use,  for  partisan 
and  private  ends,  of  the  civil  law  is  an  old  weapon,  and 
that  I  may  enforce  the  plea  I  m.ake  wit'h.  yo>u  to  strive  not 
for  the  destruction  of  the  courts,  not  even  to  complain  at 


JUDICIAL    CONSPIRACY.  35 

their  wrongs,  but  to  stand  together  peaceably  and  at  all 
cost,  to  take  possession  of  the  machinery  of  th>e  la.\v,  to 
correct  its  abuses,  and  to  enforce  justice  by  t'he  authority 
of  the  same  court  which  to-day  is  so  frequently  used  to 
rob  us  of  our  liberty  and  to  protect  the  robbers  of  society. 

The  authority  of  the  law  must  not  be  questioned.  In 
the  day  of  our  victory  we  shall  use  its  power  in  our  own 
defense. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  complain  at  the  standing  army. 
In  tthe  day  of  our  victory  it  will  defend  our  government, 
and  will  enforce  for  us  against  all  comers  the  authority  of 
the  law  which  our  hands  shall  write  on  the  new  statutes 
commanding  obedience  to  t^he  world's  new  life. 

Government  may  be  likened  to  a  mig'hty  ironclad. 
Her  power  is  used  against  us.  It  is  used  to  protect  the 
old.  It  is  used  to  suppress  the  new.  It  is  used  to  defend 
the  robber.  It  is  used  to  turn  the  toilers  into  tramps. 
What  shall  we  do?  Strive  to  destroy  it?  Or  by  the 
authority  of  our  citizenship  at  the  ballot  box  take  posses- 
sion of  her  decks  and  use  her  power  to  defend  the  c'ham- 
pions  of  humanity  against  the  worshipers-  of  dollars?  I 
plead  for  peace,  for  obedience  to  the  courts,  for  a  defense 
of  their  authority,  but  for  agitation,  for  free  discussion, 
for  information,  for  argument,  for  the  ballot.  I  would 
that  no  man  sihould  be  less  brave.  Be  brave  enough  to 
die,  if  need  be,  starving  in  a  garret  or  strangling  at  a 
hangman's  hand.  But  speak.  Speak  fairly.  Speak  truly. 
Speak  in  defense  of  the  helpless.  Speak  for  t'he  o^^rborne. 
Speak  for  the  new  life.  Speak  for  the  authority  of  the  law. 
Capture  the  lawmaking  power,  capture  the  courts,  make 
them  your  own.  They  will  be  used  against  .}X)u  with 
increasing  vigor  under  ever\^  conceivable  excuse,  under 
every  misinterpretation  of  law,  as  the  result  of  eve^y 
possible  conspiracy.  The  enemies  of  social  justice  would 
welcome  disorder:  that  can  be  answered  with  a  gatling 
gun.  But  there  lives  among  them  no  man  with  lips  so 
eloquent  tiliat  can  find  an  ans-wer  for  the  helpless,  toiling, 
pitiful  pleading  of  those  who,  dying  of  hunger,  beg  for  an 
opportunity  to  toil  for  bread. 

Neither  would  I  wish  that  any  man  should  have  less  of 


36  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

•honor.  Never  in  the  world's  history  was  there  sudh'an 
opportunity  for  genuine  greatness.  I  want  you  to  belong 
to  the  heroes  and  the  martyrs  of  yO'Ur  race.  I  want  you 
■to  listen  while  1  call  the  roll  of  the  names  of  some  of  tho'se 
■whose  ranks  I  want  you  to  join,  whose  spirit,  purpose  and 
heroism  I  want  you  to  emulate.  I  want  you  to  learn  how 
the  agony  of  each  new  birth-pang  in  the  world's  advance 
has  made  sacred  so^m'e  prison  cell,  has  made  light  some 
■darkened  dungeon,  lias  made  glorious  the  instruments  of 
torture. 

In  r\^m'mg  these  I  want  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  I  am 
begging  you  to  fall  in  line  and  add  another  link  tO'  the 
chain.  I  shall  not  name  the  name  of  a  single  c'0<ward.  I 
s'hall  not  name  the  name  of  a  single  man  who  taught,  one 
way  and  acted  another.  I  shall  not  name  the  name  of  a 
single  man  who  taught  anything  but  obedience  to  t^he  law. 
Listen.  Socrates  was  the  greatest  teacher  of  his  century. 
That  broad-brained  character  in  his  small  school  gathered 
about  him  the  brightest  minds  of  his  time,  a  company  of 
young  men,  and  by  his  instruction,  ;he  made  them  the 
teachers  of  the  western  world.  He  trained  them  and  in- 
spired them.  And  yet  this  man,  whose  genius  has  given 
the  foundation  of  philosophy,  who^se  voice  was  more 
powerful  than  any  other  to  bring  light  and  life,  who 
brought  forth  ithe  foundation  of  law,  of  statesmansthdp  and 
made  the  teachers  of  the  higher  life  for  the  western  world, 
w'as  fhimself  accused,  tried,  condemned  and  compelled  tO' 
drink  the  hemlock  to  his  death  under  tlhe  charge  of  cor- 
rupting the  youth. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  mO'St  splendid  religious 
character  of  all.  Stop  a  minute.  Do  not  tell  me  I  am 
comparing  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  any  modern  reformer.  I 
aqi  noit  doing  that.  I  am  comparing  the  men  who  sent 
Jesus  Christ  to  crucifixion  to  the  men  who  by  tlie  same 
spirit  have  hounded  the  footsteps  of  every  other  refo^rmer, 
both  before  and  after  tjhe  unequaled  career  of  that  splendid 
Nazarene.  Listen.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  most 
splendid  -religious  character  of  all  history.  His  sym- 
pathies 'were  as  wide  as  the  earth.  His  compassion 
reached  every  class  of  men.    His  sympathies  extended  tO' 


JUDICIAL    CONSPIRACY.  37 

every  race,  to  every  clime,  to  all  classes.  The  publican, 
the  soldier,  the  ju<lgc,  the  tax  gatherer  and  tdie  \vo.nian 
who  was  a  sinner  felt  the  quality  of  his  mercy,  kiiow  tiie 
mabchless  tenderness  of  liis  great  heart.  Jesus  of  Naz- 
aretJh'was  the  most  splendid  religious  character  of  all  tihe 
years  of  all  the  centuries,  but  he  was  arrest^ed,  tried,  foiuid 
guilty  and  sent  to  the  cross  under  the  charge  of  blasphemy. 

St.  Paul  stood  on  the  border  land  of  Asia.  He  heard 
a  voice  and  saw  a  vision  beckoning,  "Come  O'ver  into 
^Macedonia  and  help  us."  He  went.  No  stouter  hearted, 
no  clearer  brained,  no  mightier  champion  of  goodness  and 
rig'hbeousness  ever  walked  the  streets  of  the  eternal  city. 
But  he  was  arrested,  tried,  condemned  and  executed  as  a 
public  enemy. 

Lat'i>mer  and  Ridley!  I  stood  by  the  side  of  the  monu- 
ment in  Oxford  which  marks  the  place  where  they  were 
burned.  But  the  flame  that  lit  the  fagots  that  tortured 
them  made  a  light  in  Great  Britain  that  made  the  life  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race  lighter  and  broader  and  better. 

Sir  Thomas  ]\Iore  was  a  conspicuous  defender  of  tihe 
old  church.  He  conscientiously  disagreed  with  Henry 
VHI.  He  defended  the  old  religion.  ^  He  stood  by  the  old 
church.  He  was  as  loyal  to  Catherine  as  he  was  to  iiis 
owm  pure  'heart.  Sir  Thomas  More  refused  to  recognize 
as  a  legitimate  successsor  of  the  prince  he  had  s-erved  the 
child  of  Anne  Boleyn.  He  was  the  author  of  Utopia. 
Scorn  it  as  you  will,  laugh  at  it  as  you  may,  in  Utopia  Sir 
Thomas  IMore  anticipated  before  the  middle -of  the  six- 
teenth century  every  single  step  in  political  advancement 
and  social  progress  that  has  been  achieved  in  all  t'he  years 
of  struggle  froni  the  sixteenth  century  down  to  this  after- 
noon. He  refused  to  recognize  the  cthild  of  Anne  Boleyn 
as  the  legitimate  successor  of  tihe  prince  he  ser\^d,  but 
he  brought  forth  a  brighter  philosophy  and  a  more 
splendid  statesmanship.  In  the  bright  philosopliy  of  his 
heart,  in  the  fidelity  of  his  life,  he  was  the  strongest- 
brained  and  truest-^hearted  man  of  his  generation.  But  he 
was  deprived  of  his  life  as  a  public  enemy — bchead-cd  for 
treasoii  to  the  state. 

John  Bunyan  was  a  jail  bird  as  well  a^  lh<-  author  of 


38  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

t'be  matchless  allegory  which  glorified  the  scene  of  his'  in- 
carceration, Bedford  jail.  He  made  it  impossible  to  wri'te 
the  story  of  English  literature  or  to  follow  'the  current  of 
the  religious  ideals  of  the  generations  since,  except  we 
s'topto  mention  Bedford  jail. 

In  1638  Oliver  Cromwell  took  ship  in  London  as  a 
passenger  for  America,  but,  by  order  of  t/he  privy  council 
of  the  reigning  prince,  his  departure  v/as  prevented  and 
■he  was  compelled  to  remain.  But,  two  years  later,  he 
became  a  member  of  parliament  and  commenced  his  long 
career,  which  culmmated  in  his  becoming  t'hc  master  of 
the  English  people.  He  made  the  law  of  England  stronger 
than  the  voice  of  any  English  prince.  In  the  arrest  of 
Oliver  Cromwell  Vv^as  hidden  the  redemption  of  the  Britis'h 
nation  from  the  reign  of  a  lawless  tihrone. 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence  Thomas  Jefferson 
avers  as  one  of  the  grounds  of  complaint  that  tbe  power 
to  arrest  and  to  unfairly  try  the  revolutionary  agitator  was 
one  of  the  grounds  upon  which  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  based.  If  to  unfairly  arrest  and  unjustly  try 
a  revolutionary  agitator  was  ground  for  writing  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  the  modern  examples  of  unjust 
arrests  and  of  unfair  trials  are  proper  ground  for  feeling 
discomtemt  and  for  reorganizing  the  authorities- of  tihe  gov- 
erniment  and  taking  possession  of  the  powers  and  the  au- 
t'horities  of  the  -state. 

Among  the  men  whose  friendship  I  have  learned  to 
prize,  and  w'hose  life  and  splendid  character  I  sball  always 
admire,  was  a  brave  old  man  who  spent  seven  years  of  his 
early  manhood  in  a  penitentiary  under  a  conviction;  for 
theft.  His  offenise  had  been  rendering  assistance  to  a 
black  man  on  ihis  way  to  liberty.  The  law  was  on  the 
statutes,  its  violation  was  not  disputed,  but  his  conviction 
converted  the  judge  and  the  jury,  dhanged  the  views  of  the 
prosecutor,  miade  an  abolitionist  out  of  his  warden,  and 
his  keeper.  His  presence  in  prison  made  the  gloomy  walls 
of  a  penal  institution  the  scene  of  a  reformation  far-reach- 
ing in  its  results,  resistless  in  its  power.  T  refer  to  George 
Thompson,  for  twenty-five  years  after  his  liberation'  a  mis- 
sioiniary  among  the  blacks  of  Africa.    I  knew  'him  in.  his  old 


JUDICIAL    CONSPIRACY.  39 

age.    His  career  is  over,  but  being  dead  he  s-hall  speak  on 
forever  in  tllie  splendid  courage  o^  his  unselfisih  life. 

John  13ro\vn  was  guilty,  as  aharged.  The  authority  of 
the  law  was  unquestionable,  but  the  world  had  outgrown 
the  institutions  againsft  which  he  offended.  The  infamy 
of  t^he  scaffold  and  the  deathless  fame  of  the  hero  stand 
together  at  tihe  parting  of  the  ways  between  t'he  outgroAvn 
institutions  of  the  past,  and  tihe  new  life  of  the  better  day. 

What  is  the  lesson  of  all  this?  First  of  all,  it  is  a  lesson 
of  hope.  The  courts  are  always  the  last  resort  of  an  old 
abuse.  Judicial  conspiracy  will  attempt  to  silence  agita- 
tion only  when  the  old  wrong  can  defend  itself  by  no  other 
means.  The  imprisonment  of  agitators,  the  practice  of 
government  by  injunction  is  6n  the  part  of  the  powers 
which  resort  to  its  use  a  confession  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  already  vanquished  in  every  other  field. 

These  old  abuses  own  the  laws,  they  own  the  legisla- 
tures, they  own  the  cabinets,  they  own  the  courts,  they 
own  the  ofificcrs  of  the  law,  they  own  nearly  all  the  prop- 
erty, they  own  everything  in  the  United  States  worth  hav- 
ing except  six  million  and  a  half  of  voters. 

They  are  beaten  in  every  field  save  at  the  ballot-box, 
and  one  more  rally  will  beat  them  there  ;  they  will  abandon 
the  ballot-box  and  appeal  to  the  courts,  which  they  own ; 
their  appeal  to  the  courts  is  a  confession  of  defeat  in  every 
other  contest. 

Sometimes  the  contest  is  with  the  sword,  and  then  the 
place  of  honor  is  on  the  field  of  battle.  Sometimes  the 
contest  is  with  the  voice,  and  then  the  place  of  honor  is 
on  the  forum.  Sometimes  the  contest  is  with  the  printed 
page,  and  then  the  place  of  honor  is  with  the  pen.  Some- 
times the  contest  is  in  a  misused  court,  and  then  the  place 
of  honor  is  in  the  penitentiary.  The  pitying  would  be  use- 
less. Let  the  law  go  a  little  further,  and  let  these  aggrega- 
tions go  a  little  further  and  the  place  of  honor  will  not  be 
outside  but  inside  the  penitentiary  walls.  There  is  but  one 
thing  to  do  that  patriotism  and  wisdom  commend,  and 
that  is  to  speak,  to  agitate,  to  teach,  to  organize,  not  for 
violence,  but  for  thought ;  not  for  destroying,  but  for 
building ;  not  for  disorder,  but  for  peace.    Sacrifice  time 


40  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS, 

and  labor  and  place,  and  strike  for  the  place  of  power  and 
keep  struggling,  stepping  forward  and  striving  and  vot- 
ing and  organizing  until  the  places  of  influence  and 
power  from  ocean  to  ocean,  from  the  Canadian  borders 
to  the  gulf,  shall  be  in  the  hands  of  the  tribunes  of  the 
people,  and  the  robbers  of  society  shall  be  out  of  place 
and  power. 


BIMETALLISM. 

In  discussing  the  subject  of  bimetallism  to-day  I  am 
very  sure  that  we  are  discussing  a  subject  that  we  are  all 
of  us  interested  in.  Bimetallism  is  simply  a  term  be- 
longing to  the  general  financial  warfare  that  is  going  on 
in  this  country  at  this  time.  It  refers  to  the  use  of  both 
gold  and  silver,  on  exactly  the  same  footing,  as  money 
metak.  By  money  metal  we  do  not  mean  a  metal  which 
is,  or  may  be,  made  into  money,  but  we  mean  a  metal 
which,  by  virtue  of  its  own  existence,  is  given  a  right 
under  the  law  to  be  made  into  money.  Money  is  made 
of  nickel.  But  no  man  having  nickel  has  the  right  to 
say  that  that  metal,  and  that  only,  shall  be  made  into 
money.  We  have  money  made  out  of  copper,  but  no 
man  has  a  right  to  demand  that  his  particular  supply 
of  copper  shall  be  made  into  money.  By  the  use  of  the 
term  money  metal  it  is  understood,  not  that  dollars  may 
be  made  out  of  it,  but  that  the  metal  itself  shall  be  en- 
dowed with  authority  under  the  law  that  whenever  its 
owner  shall  bring  it  to  the  mint  and  ask  that  that  piece 
of  metal  shall  be  made  into  money  he  shall  have  the 
right  under  the  law  to  have  it  done.  Bimetallism  gives 
that  right  to  both  silver  and  gold.  The  gold  standard 
gives  that  right  to  gold  only. 

Nearly  all  of  the  questions  that  are  raised  with  re- 
gard to  the  use  of  silver  may  be  just  as  readily  raised 
with  regard  to  gold.  People  tell  us  that  silver  is  mined 
with  less  labor  now  than  it  used  to  be,  but  the  fact  is 
that  improvements  in  the  machinery  and  the  discoveries 
of  the  mines  liave  more  extensively  reduced  the  cost  in 
labor  in  producing  new  gold  than  in  producing  new 
silver.     It  is  said  that  the  government  ought  not  to  be 

41 


42  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

asked  to  take  a  piece  of  silver,  whether  it  wishes  to  or 
not,  and  make  that  into  a  piece  of  money.  That  is  the 
point  in  the  controversy.  It  is  beheved  by  bimetallists 
that  the  government — that  is,  the  people — does  wish  to 
have  silver  coined  into  money,  and  they  resent  the 
wrong  of  the  gold  syndicate  in  defeating  the  public  will. 
Gold  has  that  right.  We  ask  that  silver  shall  have  it 
also.  Whoever  has  a  sack  of  gold  may  have  it  coined, 
or  if  he  has  a  sack  of  gold  he  may  offer  that  in  payment 
of  debt  and  have  it  weighed  up  and  it  will  be  taken  by 
its  weight  at  its  coinage  value,  not  because  the  creditor 
is  obliged  to  take  it,  but  because  it  is  understood  that 
all  the  man  has  to  do  is  to  offer  his  gold  at  the  mint  and 
he  may  get  coins  for  it.  Now,  that  is  exactly  what  was 
true  with  regard  to  silver.  During  all  the  years  of  our 
country's  history  there  never  was  a  time  down  to  1873 
but  that  a  man  if  he  had  a  piece  of  silver  he  had  all  the 
powers  of  money,  because  under  the  law  it  had  the  au- 
thority vested  in  the  hands  of  its  owner,  should  any  one 
refuse  to  accept  it  at  its  coinage  value,  to  have  it  coined 
at  that  value.  In  1873  ^  piece  of  silver  big  enough  to 
make  a  dollar  was  worth  three  cents  more  than  a  dollar 
was,  and  as  a  result  they  were  not  then  coining  silver 
dollars.  What  the  government  was  really  doing  at  that 
time  was  taking  the  silver  and  with  it  buying  the  gold 
any  paying  interest  on  its  public  securities  in  gold.  That 
is,  saving  the  premium  that  silver  bore  over  gold  by 
making  its  payments  in  gold. 

We  are  told  by  a  large  number  of  men  that  during  all 
the  years  of  our  country's  history  down  to  1873  there 
was  only  a  small  number  of  silver  coins  actually  coined, 
and  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  because  of  that  there 
was  no  demand  for  silver  money,  and  that  people  would 
not  use  silver  any  way,  and  that  it  dropped  out  of  coin- 
age because  there  was  no  demand  for  it.  This  ought 
to  be  borne  in  mind  first,  that  a  large  sum  of  money  was 
coined  into  half  dollars,  which  during  nearly  all  of  that 
time  were_  an  unlimited  legal  tender,  and  that  during 
all  of  the  time,  whether  it  was  coined  into  half  dollars,  or 
coined  into   dollars,   or  not   coined   at   all,   the  metal 


BIMETALLISM.^  43 

itself,  based  on  itself,  under  the  law  always  had  the 
right  to  be  coined,  so  that  a  piece  of  silver  as  big  as  a 
silver  dollar  was  never  once  in  the  history  of  the  country 
prior  to  1873  worth  less  than  a  dollar.  The  gold  might  be 
worth  a  little  more,  the  silver  might  be  worthalittleaiiore, 
but  the  unlimited  demand  which  the  government  offered 
for  both  for  coinage  made  it  certain  that  the  silver  or  gold 
in  a  dollar  could  never  be  worth  less  than  a  dollar.  If 
there  was  a  variation  in  gold  or  silver  it  was  always 
above  their  coinage  value,  for  never  one  or  the  other 
fell  below  its  coinage  value. 

Another  thing  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  this 
connection,  and  that  is  this:  That  during  all  the  years 
of  our  country's  history  down  to  1846,  there  were  no 
silver  mines  in  the  United  States.  If  you  will  go  over 
the  old  States,  New  England,  New  York,  Rhode  Island; 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Iowa, 
South  Carolina,  Maryland,  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Geor- 
gia, of  all  of  those  vStates,  none  of  them  had  any  silver 
mines,  none  of  them  have  any  silver  mines  now.  The 
only  silver  State  prior  to  the  Mexican  war  in  this  coun- 
try was  the  State  of  Missouri.  Mr.  Carlisle,  in  a  gov- 
ernment report  running  through  all  the  States,  says  that 
the  tital  product  of  silver  in  all  the  United  States  for  all 
the  years  of  the  history  of  our  country  down  to  1846 
amounted  to  onlv  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars. Now,  if  during  all  this  time  only  that  number  of 
dollars'  worth  of  silver  was  produced  in  this  country,  the 
coinage  by  far  outran  the  production  that  was  produced 
largely  in' Missouri  alone,  and  was  produced  in  connec- 
tion with  the  lead  mines.  They  found  the  silver  along  with 
the  lead,  and  the  lead  was  m'ined,  and  in  getting  out  the 
lead  they  got  out  the  silver  also. 

The  silver  m.ines  of  this  country  came  to  us  with  the 
Mexican  war.  When  the  Mexican  war  was  over  it  took 
some  time  to  get  under  way,  and  the  mining  of  silver  had 
hardly  gotten  under  way  when  the  Civil  War  came  on. 
If  it  is  said  that  before  the  demonetizing  of  silver  little 
silver  was  coined,  the  answer  is,  that  for  seventy-five 
years  under  the  reign  of  the  constitution  there  was  more 


44  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

silver  coined  in  the  United  States  than  was  produced 
in  the  United  States. 

But  listen!  To  say  that  the  v^^hole  number  of  dollars 
coined,  and  the  whole  number  of  half  dollars  coined,  and 
the  whole  volume  of  silver  bullion  produced  in  the  coun- 
try made  up  the  volume  of  silver  for  business  purposes, 
is  not  true.  During  all  the  time  until  within  the  more 
recent  years  foreign  coins  were  a  legal  tender  tmder  the 
law  of  this  country.  Silver  came  to  us  from  other  coun- 
tries, came  in  the  coins  of  other  countries.  The  Spanish 
milled  dollar,  the  direct  antecedent  of  the  Mexican  dol- 
lar, scorned  and  despised,  was  the  first  legal  tender  un- 
der the  constitution,  was  really  the  standard  of  values 
under  the  first  coinage  law.  But  silver  coins  of  other 
countries  being  legal  tender  in  this  country,  and  circu- 
lating widely  in  this  country,  really  did  the  business  of 
the  country  for  more  than  half  a  century.  A  man  was 
telling  me  recently,  who  had  a  contract  for  grading  on 
the  building  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railway,  that  he  uni- 
formly paid  the  men  wdio  worked  for  him  in  silver  dol- 
lars, and  not  a  single  silver  dollar  that  was  used  was  an 
American  coin.  They  were  foreign  coins  without  ex- 
ception. He  said  that  he  remembered  distinctly  look- 
ing them  over  to  find  an  American  coin,  and  notwith- 
standing repeated  efforts  to  do  so,  was  never  able  to  get 
hold  of  one.  The  silver  was  foreign  silver.  The  coins 
were  foreign  coins.  America  coined  little  silver,  she 
produced  less,  but  her  use  of  silver  was  not  in  the  slight- 
est degree  measured  or  controlled  by  the  amount  she 
coined.  But  the  point  in  the  argument  is  this.  Not  that 
there  was  a  large  number  of  dollars  coined,  not  that 
there  was  a  great  quantity  of  foreign  coins  introduced, 
but  that  silver,  coined  or  uncoined,  always  had  the  right 
to  be  coined,  and  at  the  very  hour  that  coinage  was 
finally  denied,  silver,  coined  or  uncoined,  as  bullion,  was 
worth  three  cents  on  the  dollar  more  than  gold,  coined 
or  uncoined,  was  worth,  either  as  bullion  or  money ;  and 
that  both  gold  and  silver,  coined  or  uncoined,  were  given 
all  the  rights  of  money  in  the  American  market. 

Now,  again.    The  argument  for  the  double  standard 


BIMETALLISM.  45 

is  this.  Money,  according  to  the  gold  standard  people, 
money  is  simply  a  stamped  commodity.  I  do  not  believe 
that  money  is  a  commodity,  stamped  or  unstamped.  I 
believe  that  the  essential  idea  in  money  is  not  conmiod- 
ity,  but  authority.  Money  is  the  government's  author- 
ity determining  the  ratio  at  which  commodities  shall 
exchange  for  each  other, — not  itself  the  commodity.  But 
while  I  do  not  believe  that  money  is  a  commodity,  let  us 
admit  for  the  sake  of  the  argument  that  money  is  sim- 
ply a  stamped  commodity.  It  is  the  argument  of  these 
men  that  the  government  is  simply  to  coin  the  money; 
that  is,  put  the  stamp  of  the  government  on  each  piece 
of  metal  after  the  same  manner  in  which  you  get  the 
stamp  of  the  city's  authority  on  a  half-bushel  measure 
by  taking  it  to  the  city  hall.  When  you  have  done  so 
no  man  can  raise  any  question  as  to  the  genuineness  of 
your  measure.  So  in  the  same  way  the  gold  standard 
men  contend  that  the  government  simply  measures  the 
amount  of  metal  and  puts  the  government  stamp  on  the 
back  of  it  as  a  guarantee  that  wherever  this  stamp  shall 
appear  that  shall  be  evidence  that  the  coin  is  genuine ; 
that  is,  that  the  piece  contains  a  certain  quantity  of  the 
commodity.  Now,  I  do  not  believe  that  at  all.  I  be- 
lieve that  money  is  not  in  the  coin,  but  in  the  authority 
shown  by  the  stamp  that  the  coin  wears.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  the  value  of  a  deed  to  a  piece  of  land  is  meas- 
ured by  the  value  of  the  paper  that  the  deed  is  written 
on,  but  I  do  believe  that  the  value  of  the  deed  is  meas- 
ured by  the  value  of  the  things  certified  in  the  substance 
written  on  the  paper.  I  do  mot  believe  that  the  ware- 
house receipt  has  its  value  determined  by  the  value  of 
the  yellow  paper  that  the  receipt  is  written  on,  but  in 
the  value  of  the  things  there  certified,  and  so  with  re- 
gard to  money.  The  value  of  the  money  is  not  in  the 
piece  of  paper,  nor  the  piece  of  metal,  gold  or  silver,  or 
copper,  on  which  the  certificate  of  the  government  is 
stamped,  but  the.  value  of  money  is  in  the  thing  that  is 
there  certified.  That  is  my  judgment  with  regard  to 
the  money  question.  It  does  not  exist  as  a  commodity, 
but  as  a  certificate  of  the  authority  of  the  government 


46  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

determining  the  ratio  at  which  commodities  shall  ex- 
change for  each  other.  Exchanging  a  commodity  for 
money  is  only  one-half  of  the  process.  The  purpose  of 
money  is  never  complete  until  a  commodity  goes  out 
of  itself  into  money,  and  out  of  money  into  some  other 
commodity.  Money  does  not  exist  for  any  value  which  is 
in  itself,  but  for  the  sake  of  making  convenient  the  ex- 
change of  values,  resting  not  in  money,  but  in  other 
things.  Things  of  value  ought  not  to  be  subject  to 
money.  J\Ioney  ought  to  be  subject  to  the  other  things 
in  v.iiich  alone  real  values  rest. 

But  let  it  be  granted  for  a  moment  that  the  other 
side  of  the  question  is  correct,  and  that  the  function  of 
the  mint  is  that  of  simply  stamping  a  certificate  of  weight 
and  fineness  in  order  to  determine  its  commodity  value, 
then  all  other  lines  of  business  are  carried  on  with  a 
view  of  having  the  values  of  all  the  other  things  ex- 
pressed in  values  of  gold,  or  both  gold  and  silver,  pro- 
vided both  circulate  on  terms  of  equality.  Now,  if  that 
be  true,  here  is  a  difficulty.  I  am  the  producer  of  wheaL 
and  corn.  Before  I  can  do  business  with  my  neighbor 
I  must  either  convert  the  wheat  and  corn  into  actual 
gold  and  silver,  or  I  must  exchange  it  into  something 
else  using  the  terms  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the  gold  and 
silver  actually  in  existence  available  for  business  pur- 
poses will  determine  the  scale  of  the  prices  of  the  wheat 
or  corn,  or  whatever  I  and  my  neighbor  are  producing 
together.  Now,  if  you  use  only  gold  you  must  convert, 
'uhen,  all  of  the  property,  all  of  the  business  of  the  coun- 
try, either  into  gold,  or  into  the  terms  of  gold.  If  we 
use  both  gold  and  silver,  we  have  simply  doubled  the 
source  of  supply  from  which  Vv^e  get  the  metal  out  of 
which  we  can  have  the  means  into  which  we  can  convert 
the  products  of  our  labor,  and  instead  of  having  only 
one  resource,  we  have  two.  And  instead  of  being  sub- 
ject to  all  the  fluctuations  of  either  silver  or  gold  we 
bring  a  balance  between  the  two,  and  then  our  standard 
is  the  average  that  shall  lie  between  them  both.  If  gold 
goes  up  in  value  as  measured  in  commodities,  then  all 
commodities   must  go   down   in  value   as   measured   in 


BIMETALLISM.  47 

gold.  If  gold  alone  shall  have  the  right  to  go  to  the 
iiunt  and  be  coined  into  money,  then  every  fluctuation  in 
the  price  of  gold  affects  prices  of  all  other  sorts  of  com- 
modities in  the  market.  If  gold  goes  up,  they  must 
come  down,  and  if  gold  comes  down,  they  must  go  up. 
The  man  who  can  corner  and  retire  gold,  for  to  put  gold 
into  a  vault  and  lock  it  up  is  as  surely  taking  it  out  of 
business  for  the  time  being  as  though  it  were  lost  in  the 
sea — whoever  can  corner  or  retire  gold  can  directly  and 
injuriously  afTect  the  price  of  every  other  possible  com- 
modity. Notice  that  this  argument  is  all  based  on  the 
contention  of  the  gold  men,  that  money  is  a  stamped 
commodity.  If,  then,  their  position  is  true,  then  under 
the  gold  standard,  if  gold  goes  up  everything  else  must 
come  down.  If  it  comes  down  everything  else  goes  up. 
But  if  we  have  the  two  standards,  if  gold  goes  up  silver 
is  coming  down  and  we  can  do  business  with  silver,  and 
commodities  will  stay  where  they  are  until  gold  comes 
back  a.cfain.  If  silver  goes  up  we  can  measure  business 
in  terms  of  gold,  and  commodities  will  be  stable  in  price. 
But  if  you  have  only  one,  whenever  that  breaks,  prices 
break — and  when  prices  break  ruin  follows.  On  that 
basis  it  would  be  better  to  have  both  gold  and  silver,  for 
then  we  can  modify,  if  we  cannot  cure,  these  fluctuations 
which  injure  business  more  than  anything  else  which 
can  possibly  be  named. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  believe  that  money 
is  a  stamped  commodity.  I  believe  that  money  is  the 
authority  of  the  government  for  the  discharge  of  a 
credit.  Let  us  see  where  the  money  comes  in,  and  v.here 
the  power  of  the  money  as  a  legal  tender  comes.  If 
confidence  is  all  that  is  required  your  private  check  will 
answer.  If  it  is  simply  a  matter  of  confidence  a  thirty 
days'  note  is  just  as  good.  If  Mr.  McKinley  and  Mark 
Hanna  will  succeed  in  restoring  confidence,  and  the  con- 
fidence abides  forever,  then  we  will  need  neither  gold 
nor  silver,  but  simply  thirty-day  notes,  provided  the 
confidence  is  sufticient,  and  its  lasting  qualities  do  not 
fail  us.  But  the  trouble  is,  thirty-day  notes  are  not  legal 
tender.     Some  man  may  refuse  to  take  our  thirty-day 


48  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

notes.  Confidence,  even  though  it  be  restored,  may  be 
lost  in  some  one  of  us,  if  not  in  lis  all.  When  the  thirty- 
day  note  is  refused  and  the  demand  made  for  money 
■which  the  law  shall  recognize,  the  creditor  may  dem^and 
legal  tender.  The  free  coinage  of  gold  makes  gold,  with 
or  without  coinage,  the  sole  basis  of  legal  tender.  Bi- 
metallism would  give  the  same  authority  to  both  gold 
and  silver.  That  legal  tender  power  which  resides  in 
money  is  there  not  because  of  the  inherent  qualities  of 
gold  or  silver.  It  is  in  gold  because,  having  free  access 
to  the  mints,  the  authority  of  the  United  States  flag  is 
carried  with  the  stamp  it  bears.  The  free  coinage  of  sil- 
ver would  give  the  same  authority  of  the  same  flag  that 
whosoever  shall  carry  that  authority  shall  be  proof 
against  any  sherifif,  shall  have  authority  to  stop  in  the 
road  any  constable  that  comes  to  take  his  goods.  Here 
is  a  constable  coming  with  an  execution  to  take  posses- 
sion of  your  span  of  horses.  The  United  States  govern- 
ment says  that  gold  shall  be  the  money.  It  says  now  it 
shall  practically  be  the  only  money.  The  United  States 
government  says  that  gold  shall  be  the  money.  The 
State  of  Illinois  says  that  any  man  who  can  put  up  some 
of  this  money  in  sufificient  quantity  may  stop  the  consta- 
ble. The  constable  is  coming  for  your  horses.  What 
right  has  the  constable  to  come  and  get  your  horses? 
The  right  is  on  a  piece  of  paper  he  has  in  his  hand. 
What  is  that  piece  of  paper?  It  is  a  command  from  the 
sheriff  of  the  county.  What  has  the  sheriff  command- 
ed him  to  do?  To  get  your  horses.  What  for?  For  the 
purpose  of  settling  a  judgment  that  has  already  been  put 
on  record  in  the  county  court.  Is  he  going  to  take  your 
horses?  Yes.  By  what  authority?  By  the  authority  of 
the  government  as  expressed  in  the  order  of  the  sheriff 
to  come  over  and  get  your  team.  Now,  you  want  to 
stop  him,  I  contend  that  if  a  piece  of  paper  is  good 
enough  to  bear  the  command  of  a  county  sheriff  to  come 
and  get  my  horses,  a  piece  of  paper  is  good  enough  to 
bear  the  command  of  the  United  States  government  that 
the  sheriff  has  got  to  stop  and  let  the  horses  alone.  This 
is  right,  is  it  not?     I  do  not  see  how  you  can  possibly 


BIMETALLISM.  49 

dispute  that.  Suppose  in  this  country  it  was  once  en- 
acted that  executions  should  be  printed  on  tin,  there 
would  be  an  added  price  on  tin  right  away.  Suppose 
it  should  be  enacted  that  in  this  country  commitments, 
executions  for  crime  should  be  all  engraved  on  plates  of 
gold.  Do  you  suppose  that  any  one  would  stand  up  and 
say,  then,  diat  the  authority  of  a  sheriff  to  hang  a  man 
came  from  the  gold,  not  from  the  command  of  the  court 
inscribed  on  gold,  but  which  would  have  the  same  au- 
thority if  written  on  parchment  paper,  or  if  inscribed  on 
a  piece  of  steel?  The  authority  of  the  government  to 
send  a  sheriff  after  my  goods  is  based  on  the  same  ne- 
cessity which  authorizes  the  same  sheriff  under  a  differ- 
ent order  from  the  same  court  to  come  after  my  life.-  If 
the  court  authorizes  the  sheriff  to  come  after  my  goods 
and  compels  me  peaceably  to  submit  unless  I  discharge 
some  obligation  there  involved,  it  must  provide  also 
some  way  by  which  I  can  discharge  that  obligation,  and 
the  method  by  which  it  stops  the  sheriff  is  based  in  the 
same  governmental  authority  by  which  Jt  first  ordered 
him  to  come.  If  the  order  which  sends  him  after  me 
or  my  goods  may  be  written  on  paper  and  authorized  by 
a  county  court,  certainly  the  authority  of  the  United 
States  government,  written  on  paper  or  stamped  on  lead, 
would  be  sufficient  to  stop  the  sheriff's  coming,  should 
the  government  so  elect.  The  gold  standard  contention 
is  that  what  Uncle  Sam  has  to  say  is  not  of  so  much  im- 
portance as  the  stuff  he  uses  to  say  it  on.  JNIy  conten- 
tion is  that  whenever  Uncle  Sam  gets  ready  to  say  a 
thing,  whether  it  is  said  on  greenback  paper,  whether  it 
is  said  through  the  United  States  court,  or  whether  it  is 
said  by  the  standing  army,  it  would  be  well* to  listen. 
If  Uncle  Sam  should  make  up  his  mind  to  say  that  a 
dollar  should  be  printed  on  both  gold  and  silver,  we 
would  have  just  that  much  more  raw  material  on  which 
to  print  the  dollar. 

Does  anybody  anywhere  contend  that  there  is 
enough  raw  material  in  gold  alone  on  which  to  print  all 
the  dollars  that  we  need?  Is  that  any  share  of  Mr. 
Gage's  policy?    Is  that  proposed  anywhere  in  this  coun- 


50  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

try  that  the  only  dollars  in  circulation  shall  be  gold  dol- 
lars? No  one  proposes  that.  Mr.  Gage's  proposal  now 
IS  that  the  United  States  government  shall  proceed  to 
iss'ue  seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars  in 
bonds.  What  for?  To  retire  the  greenbacks.  What 
for?  To  get  the  greenbacks  out  of  the  way.  Out  of 
whose  way?  Out  of  our  way.  They  are  so  far  out  of 
my  way  now  that  I  cannot  get  hold  of  any  of  them. 
Who  is  it  that  does  not  want  the  greenback  around?  Is 
there  any  man  of  us  seriously  suffering  because  we  have 
so  many  greenbacks  we  cannot  stand  it?  Is  there  any 
man  of  us, — is  there  any  man  of  us  who  has  been  using 
the  greenbacks  to  rob  the  United  States  treasury  of  its 
gold ;  is  there  any  man  of  us  who  is  anxious  to  use  the 
greenback  for  that  purpose?  If  the  United  States  treas- 
ury would  pay  in  either  gold  or  silver,  would  there  be 
any  man  in  the  United  States  of  America  who  could  use 
the  greenback  to  rob  the  treasury  of  gold?  Is  it  not  only 
because  the  United  States  government  insists  through 
Mr.  Gage  and  Mark  Hanna  and  Brother  McKinley  and 
Wall  Street  and  Ichelheimer,  and  the  balance  of  the  po- 
litical fellows  down  at  Wall  Street, —  is  it  not  true  that 
the  reason  why  these  men  are  fighting  to  get  the  green- 
back out  of  the  way  and  to  substitute  a  United  States 
bond  in  its  place  is,  and  solely  is,  because  they  can  use 
the  United  States  bond  with  which  to  organize  national 
banks? 

Is  it  not  true  that  they  propose  to  take  the  non-in- 
terest bearing  United  States  government  note, — that  is 
whac  the  greenback  is, — and  substitute  for  it  an  inter- 
est-bearing note,  so  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
can  have  the  privilege  of  paying  interest  on  notes  then 
instead  of  having  non-interest  bearing  notes  as  now? 
And  then,  instead  of  having  their  non-interest  bearing 
notes,  as  legal  tenders,  with  which  to  transact  busi- 
ness as  now,  they  will  be  able  to  get  the  new  bank- 
note that  shall  be  based  on  the  new  interest-bearing  note 
only  by  borrowing  it  from  the  bank,  and  which  shall  not 
be  a  legal  tender.  Is  it  not  true  beyond  all  possible  ques- 
tion that  it  is  their  plan  to  reorganize  the  finances  of  this 


BIMETALLISM.  5 1 

country  on  the  basis  of  giving  us  a  large  volume  of  paper 
money?  Does  not  that  simple  purpose — plead  guiiiy  to 
this  ciiarge — that  every  man  who  asks  :or  the  gold  stand- 
ard alone  knows  that  there  is  not  gold  enough  in  Ameri- 
ca on  which  to  print  the  money  necessary  to  do  the  busi- 
ness with?  \'ery  well.  If  it  is  not  printed  on  silver, 
then,  Brother  Gage,  what  is  it  to  be  printed  on?  Paper. 
\>ry  well.  The  gold  man  tells  us  that  he  wants  a  hun- 
dred-cent dollar,  and  'Mr.  Gage  proposes  the  buying  up 
of  the  silver  in  circulation  at  its  market  value,  and  that 
the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  bonds  shall  be 
reduced  in  their  volume  so  far  as  the  silver  in  circula- 
tion shall  be  found  sufficient  to  settle  the  account  on  the 
gold  basis.  Mr.  Gage,  why  do  you  propose  to  take  away 
the  silver  dollar?  Because  the  business  men  of  America 
are  opposed  to  a  fifty-cent  dollar.  Mr.  Gage,  when  you 
have  taken  the  fifty-cent  silver  dollar  away  from  us, 
what  do  you  propose  to  put  in  its  place?  A  national 
bank-note.  How  much  is  the  stuff  worth  that  a  national 
bank-note  is  printed  on?  About  one-tenth  of  a  cent. 
He  proposes  to  take  a  dollar,  the  raw  material  of  which 
is  worth  fifty  cents,  and  to  give  us  a  dollar  in  which  the 
raw  material  is  worth  a  tenth  of  a  cent. 

All  money  is  a  promise  to  pay.  Under  any  proper 
conception  of  money,  money  is  in  your  hand  only  as 
some  valuable  commodity  has  gone  out  of  your  hand, 
and  the  money  in  your  hand  is  a  promise  either  that 
the  commodity  you  have  parted  with,  or  some  other 
commodity  of  li^'e  value,  shall  come  back  to  you.  Mr. 
Gage's  paper  dollar,  you  say,  is  a  promise  to  pay  gold. 
But  gold  itself  is  prized  only  because  it  carries  with  it  a 
promise,  a  promise  to  pay,  not  some  thing  that  can  be 
stored  away  in  the  vault,  but  some  thing  of  use  or 
l^eauty.  Money  is  always  such  a  promise.  But,  admit 
that  gold  is  the  final  fulfillment  of  the  promise  to  pay. 
Nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  such  an  admission. 
Nothing  can  be  more  ridiculous  than  such  a  claim.  But 
let  it  be  admitted,  gold  is  the  final  fulfillment  of  the 
promise  to  pay.  And  Gage's  paper  money,  directly  or 
indirectly,  promises  to  pay  gold.     But  his  paper  is  in 


52  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

our  hands  to  circulate.  It  is  based  on  the  gold  idea. 
What  gold?    The  gold  that  we  have  not  got. 

The  old  bank,  the  old  wildcat  bank,  said  there  was 
not  both  gold  and  silver  enough  to  do  the  business  with, 
that  for  every  coined  dollar,  gold  or  silver,  we  needed 
two  dollars  for  one  in  paper  currency  in  order  to  do  the 
business,  and  so  the  old  State  banks  were  chartered  and 
went  into  business,  and  said  that  for  every  dollar  in  coin 
they  would  lock  in  their  vaults  they  would  send  out 
three  dollars  in  paper,  and  they  circulated  the  three  dol- 
lars in  paper  against  the  one  dollar  in-  the  vault,  and  by 
and  by  they  circulated  the  one  dollar  that  was  in  the 
vault.  But  there  were  three  dollars  printed  against  the 
one  dollar  that  was  in  the  vault.  And  the  man  who  had 
one  of  the  three  dollars  came  one  day  and  said  he  wanted 
his  dollar,  and  he  carried  away  the  dollar  that  was  in  the 
vault,  and  there  were  two  other  paper  dollars  out  in  cir- 
culation with  no  dollar  in  the  vault  back  of  them.  Busi- 
ness went  on  in  that  way  for  a  little  while,  until  there 
was  a  general  breaking  up  of  the  banking  system.  And 
it  was  found  that  the  one  dollar  in  the  vault  was  insuffi- 
cient to  back  the  three  dollars  out  of  the  vault.  Wliat 
kind  of  a  system  will  yours  be,  with  one  hundred  mill- 
ions of  gold  in  the  United  States  treasury,  if  two  billions 
of  dollars  shall  be  put  into  circulation,  every  one  of 
which  shall  have  a  claim  against  some  one  of  those  dol- 
lars? The  business  of  the  country  conducted  on  the 
gold  basis  with  the  bankers'  paper  to  circulate  among 
the  people  and  the  gold  locked  up  in  the  bankers'  vaults, 
instead  of  giving  us  thirty-three  and  one-third  cents 
against  every  dollar,  will  give  us  from  five  to  eight  cents 
against  each  dollar  that  circulates. 

And  Mr.  Gage's  proposition  involves  a  promise  to 
pay  a  gold  dollar  with  only  eight  cents  to  pay  it  with. 
And  he  says  we  are  in  favor  of  dishonest  money,  and 
we  are  opposed  to  the  things  that  are  necessary  to  re- 
store prosperity  in  the  country.  He  asks  us  to  stav  by 
the  gold  standard  and  to  retire  the  silver  dollar,  because 
under  the  gold  standard  there  is  only  fifty  cents  of  gold, 
commodity  value,  in  the  silver,  commodity  value,   re- 


BIMETALLISM.  53 

quired  to  bear  the  stamp  of  an  American  dollar.  He 
asks  lis  to  retire  the  fifty-cent  dollar,  to  substitute  for 
it  a  paper  dollar  which  intrinsically  is  worth,  say,  one 
cent,  'jut  which  is  a  promise  to  pay  gold,  and  for  which 
purpose  there  is  only  eight  cents  on  the  dollar  of  gold 
in  sight  with  which  to  make  payment.  At  best,  that 
would  be  retiring  a  fifty-cent  dollar  in  behalf  of  a  ten- 
cent  dollar,  for  in  every  such  dollar  there  would  be  ten 
cents  of  value  to  back  it,  and  ninety  cents  of  prosperity 
wind  required  to  float  it.  That  is  too  little  real  value,  in- 
trinsic or  representative.  It  requires  too  little  value  and 
too  much  wind,  not  to  mention  the  nature  of  the  odors 
that  the  wind  may  bear  with  it  as  it  comes  to  us,  for  if 
the  old  system  that  put  thirty-three  and  one-third  cents 
back  of  each  paper  dollar  was  a  wildcat  proposition, 
Mr.  Gage's  proposition  is  a  polecat  proposition. 

But  the  silver  in  the  mines  belongs  to  the  rich  mine- 
owner.  Is  he  going  to  give  it  to  us  because  the  govern- 
ment is  V. illing  to  coin  it  for  us?  I  hope  not.  Wliat 
possible  benefit  is  it  to  me  to  have  the  rich  mine-owner 
have  his  silver  coined  into  dollars?  It  costs  fifteen  cents 
on  the  dollar  in  one  of  the  mines  in  Colorado  to  get  the 
gold  out  of  which  to  make  gold  dollars.  Shall  we  aban- 
don the  coinage  of  gold  because  there  is  eighty-five  cents 
profit  on  a  dollar  to  this  rich  gold  miner?  For  of  course 
there  is  no  advantage  to  us  in  having  gold  money,  be- 
cause, you  know,  eighty-five  cents  on  the  first  profit  of 
handling  the  gold  dollar  the  first  time  goes  to  the  rich 
mine-owner,  and  we  want  to  beat  him  out  of  that  eighty- 
five  cents.  What  possible  advantage  canit  be  to  me  to 
have  gold  dollars  coined,  inasmuch  as  eighty-five  cents 
of  the  dollar  goes  to  the  rich  mine-owner?  It  is  not  of 
as  much  advantage  to  me  as  it  would  be  to  base  all  dol- 
lars on  the  products  of  all  labor,  and  that  is  going  to  be 
the  thing  one  of  these  days,  but  that  is  not  the  question 
now.  The  gold  standard  makes  the  prices  of  other  com- 
modities fluctuate  as  does  the  price  of  gold.  Bimetal- 
lism would  strike  an  average  between  gold  and  silver 
and  split  the  difference  between  all  fluctuations  between 
the  prices  of  gold  and  silver  as  related  to  the  prices  of 


54  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

all  Other  commodities.  But  sometime  the  right  to  de- 
mand money  because  we  have  gold,  or  the  right  to  de- 
mand money  because  we  have  silver,  and  the  measure  of 
all  values  by  gold  alone,  or  by  both  silver  and  gold  to- 
gether, shall  cease ;  and  w^hoever  has  strength  and  is 
ready  to  labor  shall  have  the  opportunity  to  do  so,  and 
the  value  of  all  the  products  of  labor,  the  scale  on  which 
all  commodities  shall  exchange  against  each  other,  shall 
be  determined,  not  by  the  relation  of  any  given  article 
to  gold,  or  to  gold  and  silver  both,  but  by  the  ratio  which 
shall  obtain  between  every  separate  commodity  and  the 
average  value  of  all  other  commodities  in  the  market. 
That  will  be  a  scientific  money.  That  money  no  power 
can  corner.  That  is  what  we  could  call  the  multiple 
standard.  The  double  standard  is  better  than  the  single 
standard,  the  multiple  standard  is  best  of  all.  As  be- 
tween gold  and  silver  I  am  in  favor  of  both,  but  the  day 
is  speedily  coming  when  the  power  of  one  article  to  ex- 
change for  another  shall  not  be  limited  by  its  ability 
to  first  convert  itself  into  gold,  or  silver,  but  shall  be 
subject  only  to  the  requirement  that  real  and  genuine 
value  shall  be  in  and  of  itself.  But  you  say  between  the  gold 
and  the  silver  we  will  stand  for  the  gold  standard.  That 
means  to  give  eighty-five  cents  to  the  gold  mine-owner. 
If  you  can  stand  giving  the  gold  mine-owner  eighty-five 
cents  on  the  dollar,  I  presume  we  could  stand  giving  the 
silver  mine-owner  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar.  If  it  is  a  rea- 
son for  not  coining  silver  that  the  mine-owner  profits, 
it  is  likewise  a  reason  for  not  coining  gold. 

How  are  we  going  to  get  a  silver  dollar  into  circula- 
tion? How  will  it  benefit  us?  The  silver  dollar  goes 
into  circulation  by  being  paid  into  circulation.  If  we 
open  up  the  silver  mines  and  start  to  mining  and  coining 
new  dollars  out  of  silver,  every  time  they  pay  for  any- 
thing they  will  go  into  circulation.  If  you  open  the 
mines  and  go  to  digging  silver  you  will  have  to  put  men 
down  in  the  mines.  They  will  be  paid  with  the  silver 
they  dig.  ^  If  we  had  elected  Mr.  Bryan  to  be  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  true  that  the  government 
m  its  executive  department  has  the  authority  to  start 


BIMETALLISM.  55 

the  free  coinage  of  silver  any  hour  that  it  chooses,  the 
United  States  mints  would  have  been  running  at  full 
force  at  this  time.  What  would  have  been  the  resuU? 
^^hree  hundred  thousand  working  men  would  have  gone 
to  the  Rockv  Mountains  and  have  gone  to  work.  They 
would  have  been  earning  at  least  three  dollars  a  day,  and 
a  millioji  dollars  a  day,— a  million  dollars  a  day  of  the 
new  silver  dollars,— would  have  been  paid  mto  cnxulation 
in  settling  the  wage  w^orkers'  accounts.  The  unemployed 
men  who  are  starving  and  committing  suicide  on  the 
streets  of  Chicago  to-day,  instead  would  have  been  m 
the  Rocky  Mountains  digging  silver  out  of  the  moun- 
tains and  putting  silver  into  circulation  by  the  payment 
of  wages.  How  can  that  affect  me?  You  are  a  shoe- 
maker, and  want  to  sell  shoes.  The  men  who  have  been 
svalking  around  on  the  streets  of  Chicago  have  not  been 
furnishing  a  good  market  for  shoes.  Send  some  of  these 
fellows  out  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  set  them  to 
work  and  there  will  be  a  demand  for  shoes,  and  there 
will  be  a  demand  for  clothes,  and  there  will  be  an  order 
for  a  million  pairs  of  shoes,  and  there  will  be  families  left 
behind  for  whom  the  breadwinner  has  been  unable  to 
earn  a  dollar  for  months  and  months  together,  and  there 
will  be  shoes  for  those  little  children,  and  shoes  for  the 
barefooted  women,  and  the  shoemaker  who  expects  to 
stay  in  Chicago  and  make  fine  shoes  will  find  a  dem.and 
for  his  shoes,  and  the  silver  dollar  that  is  first  paid  Into 
circulation  by  paying  the  wages  of  the  miner,  will  be 
paid,  and  paid  again,  and  it  will  be  brought  dov;n  to 
Chicago  that  way. 

Yes,  but  that  doesn't  help  the  farmer.  What  does 
the  farmer  do  with  what  the  farmer  raises?  He  lets  it 
stay  in  his  cribs  and  rot.  What  will  the  employment  of 
men  that  will  give  us  a  new  million  of  dollars  in  one 
place  every  twenty-four  hours  do?  That  million  of  dol- 
lars will  pay  wages  to-day,  it  will  be  spent  four  times  to- 
morrow, it  will  be  spent  a  dozen  times  the  next  day,  and 
when  it  gets  down  here  to  Chicago,  it  will  go  round,  and 
round,  and  round.  The  million  dollars  that  is  paid  out 
at  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  wages  is  paid  once  there,  and 


56  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

paid  over  and  over  again  a  thousand  times  after  it  leaves 
the  place  where  it  was  first  brought  into  existence,  and 
every  time  it  starts  it  eases  the  pressure,  it  relieves  the 
suffering,  it  gives  new  employment,  and  enables  men 
once  more  to  stand  on  their  feet  and  be  men  among 
men.  Let's  see.  We  said  that  new  dollar  was  paid  a 
thousand  times.  Then  it  created  a  thousand  dollars  in 
trade,  it  settled  a  thousand  accounts,  it  found  employ- 
ment for  a  thousand  productive  efforts.  It  did  the  work 
of  a  dollar  a  thousand  times.  But  it  is  claimed  that  the 
first  time  it  did  the  work  of  a  dollar  out  at  the  mine  the 
miner  made  fifty  cents  on  the  transaction,  and  we  are 
calmly  asked  to  surrender  the  use  of  the  dollar  in  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  transactions  in  ord-er  to  pre- 
vent the  miner  from  making  a  half  dollar  in  the  single 
transaction  where  he  touches  the  money  at  its  start. 

These  farmers  are  everlastingly  growling.  Why  don't 
they  send  their  grain  to  Europe?  They  are  sending  it 
abroad,  while  we  are  starving  at  home.  It  was  true  in 
Ireland  that  Ireland  was  never  more  fruitful  and  the 
resources  of  the  island  were  never  greater  than  during 
the  very  years  of  the  measureless  suffering  and  the  awful 
starvation  of  her  people.  We  stood  over  in  this  coun- 
try and  held  up  our  hands  in  horror  that  Great  Britain 
should  stand  so  close  to  Ireland  and  ship  away  her  grain 
and  leave  the  Irishman  to  starve.  But  what  Great  Brit- 
ain did  for  Ireland  on  a  small  scale  so  many  years  ago, 
she  is  doing  for  the  United  States  at  this  very  hour. 
Yes!  Our  grains  are  cheap  enough,  so  the  foreigner  is 
able  to  buy,  and  while  he  buys  at  the  lowest  price  we 
starve  for  the  lack  of  the  price,  when  the  price  is  cut 
half  way  in  two.  A  friend  of  mine  down  on  the  South 
Side  last  Wednesday  told  me  that  the  day  before  he 
had  purchased  down  on  South  Water  Street  berries,  thir- 
ty-five cents  for  sixteen-quart  crates.  He  said  three 
years  ago  the  Michigan  fruit  farmers  around  the  neigh- 
borhood of  St.  Joseph  were  sending  to  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago about  eighty  thousand  crates  of  fresh  fruit  every 
morning,  and  it  was  sold  from  eighty  cents  to  ninety 
centy  and  one  dollar  a  crate.     Now,  and  last  year,  the 


BIMETALLISM.^  57 

daily  shipments  fell  down  to  fifty  thousand  crates.  The 
population  of  Chicago  had  gone  up,  there  were  more 
people  to  buy  berries  than  ever  before.  The  volume  of 
the  shipment  had  nearly  been  cut  in  two,  and  the  price 
had  gone  from  one  dollar  down  to  thirty-five  cents  a 
crate.  Three  years  ago,  when  eighty  thousand  crates 
were  coming  to  us  every  new  day,  they  were  sold  out 
in  the  market,  and  the  merchants  were  coming  down  in 
the  evening  to  buy,  and  there  was  no  fruit  left  to  be 
sold.  They  are  bringing  now  fifty  thousand  crates,  and 
in  the  evening  the  rotting,  wasting  fruit  unpurchased  is 
left  on  the  dock  down  by  the  lake,  with  nobody  to  come 
and  carry  it  away. 

What  are  we  going  to  do  for  the  farmers  and  the 
fruit  growers?  Remonetize  silver.  Let  a  million  a  day 
of  new  money  come  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  paid 
into  circulation,  not  from  Wall  Street  loaned  into  circu- 
lation. Let  new  dollars,  the  creation  of  American  labor 
through  the  American  mint,  and  from  the  American 
mine  eive  us  the  new  American  dollars  that  can  come 
down  into  the  market  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  us  a  re- 
storation of  normal  prices-.  The  people  out  of  employ- 
ment will  go  into  employment.  The  fellow  over  in  Mich- 
igan can  sell  his  strawberries.  The  fellow  over  in  Mich- 
igan, having  sold  his  strawberries,  will  give  a  man  a  job 
making  some  clothes,  and  there  will  be  a  market  for 
cloth.  Then  there  will  be  a  demand  for  wool,  and  the 
old  sheep  in  the  barren  places  of  the  earth  will  wake  up 
and  bleat  for  joy.  How  will  it  benefit  me?  I  am  a 
farmer  raising  corn.  I  sold  corn  last  winter  for  twelve 
cents  a  bushel,  and  it  was  hard  work  to  get  the  twelve 
cents.  Now,  if  we  recoin  silver  the  silver  mine-owner 
will  beat  us  on  the  matter,  because  the  bullion  is  not 
worth  so  much  out  of  the  dollar  as  in  the  dollar.  Silver 
as  a  commodity  has  gone  down  with  all  other  commodi- 
ties. Gold  as  a  commodity  has  climbed,  not  because 
it  was  yellow,  not  because  it  was  soft,  not  because  it 
could  be  divided  into  small  quantities,  not  because  it 
cost  more  to  produce  it,  because  it  does  not  cost  as 
much.    Gold  has  climbed  up  when  every  other  thing  has 


58  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

climbed  down.  If  silver  shall  be  put  side  by  side  with 
gold,  gold  will  come  down  out  of  the  air,  and  silver  will 
climb  up  out  of  the  ground.  What  will  happen?  Cloth, 
iron,  corn,  wheat,  days'  works,  will  climb  up  out  of  the 
hole  along  with  silver,  and  the  corn  will  be  worth  more 
in  dollars  just  in  proportion  as  the  dollar  is  worth  less 
in  corn.  The  corn  and  the  wheat  and  the  cloth  and  the 
iron  will  come  back  side  by  side  along  with  the  silver. 

In  the  State  of  Illinois  we  raise  corn,  in  the  State  of 
Colorado  they  dig  silver  and  gold.  In  Colorado  they 
must  close  the  silver  mine,  and  dig  gold  only.  The  price 
of  the  gold  goes  up,  the  price  of  the  silver  is  less.  The 
farmer  is  unable  to  sell  his  products  in  the  West,  and 
instead  of  having  Rocky  Mountain  prices  for  his  pro- 
duct it  must  be  abnormally  low.  What  is  going  to  hap- 
pen to  this  farmer?  With  the  restoration  of  the  price  of 
corn,  restoration  of  the  price  of  cloth,  of  pig  iron,  what 
advantage  is  it  to  me  to  have  silver  recoined?  Because 
it  will  double  the  value  of  silver?  No,  but  because  it  will 
double  the  value  of  what  my  labor  produces  at  the  same 
time  it  doubles  the  value  of  the  miners'  products. 

But,  Mr.  Mills,  bimetallism  is  dead.  When  did  it 
die?  When  did  the  funeral  take  place?  Bimetallism  can 
never  divide  the  country  again.  It  doesn't  need  to. 
Once  is  enough.  The  country  is  divided  on  that  issue,- 
and  can  never  be  divided  on  any  other  issue  until  that 
question  is  settled. 

Why  not  immediately  make  a  stroke  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  money  system  based  on  labor,  and  not  on 
metal?  Because  the  battle  is  on.  The  question  is  before 
the  house,  and  it  is  treason  to  the  fight  of  humanity  to 
raise  any  other  question  until  this  question  is  settled. 
Ah!  But  there  is  a  possibility  of  voting  in  small  par- 
ties. Let  us  vote  with  the  small  vote  and  fight  our  way 
to  a  hearing.  Wait!  Map  out  any  program.  Name  any 
object  you  may  have  in  view.  Organize  your  small 
party.  Join  it  and  go  to  fighting  for  it.  By  the  time 
you  have  a  million  men  in  your  party  there  will  be  some 
other  question  for  which  we  are  to  demand  that  you  are 
to  abandon  your  large  party  and  organize  another  small 


BIMETALLISM.  59 

one,  and  when  you  have  raised  that  party  again,  to 
strength  but  not  to  victory,  then  go  clear  back  to  the 
beginning  and  begin  again. 

Listen  a  minute!  What  would  you  think  of  me  if  I 
vva'S  a  farmer  'hauling  in  hay,  and  I  woukl  go  out  to  the 
field  and  get  a  load  of  hay  and  bring  it  half  way  and  pitch 
it  off  into  the  ditch,  and  then  go  back  for  another  load? 
You  would  say,  if  you  were  a  reasonable  man,  you  would 
drive  your  first  load  into  the  barn.  Yes,  but  I  want  to 
get  it  all  in,  and  every  load  must  start  from  the  field. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  the  wisdom  of  making  a  small 
start  with  a  new  load  when  your  wagon  is  empty,  it  is  a 
question  of  common-sense  that  the  load  we  have  on  rnust 
never  be  abandoned  or  ditched  or  forsaken  until  it  is 
put  into  the  barn  where  it  belongs. 

What  has  been  the  history  of  the  fight  for  bimetal- 
lism? We  have  been  twenty-five  years  fighting  for  it. 
How  far  have  we  got  along?  Just  to  the  point  where 
once  in  American  politics  we  have  had  the  house  divid- 
ed. Why  not  be  brave  enough  to  go  to  the  ballot-box 
and  vote'  for  a  small  party?  For  all  the  years  of  my 
life  I  never  voted  with  a  national  party  that  won.  Why 
not  go  and  vote  with  the  small  party?  Stand  up  for  a 
principle  and  be  counted.  That  is  why  I  am  standing 
for  bimetallism  this  afternoon.  For  twenty-five ^  years 
the  silver  cause  has  been  laughed  at,  lied  about,  its  de- 
fenders persecuted  and  scorned  in  America.  Have  we 
had  this  fight  for  twenty-five  years,  and  now,  when  the 
morning  of  the  day  of  victory  comes  to  us,  shall  we 
throw  away  our  banner  or  take  it  on  to  the  White  House 
and  fix  it  there  forever?  Ah,  but  you  are  not  consistent, 
Mr.  Mills.  You  tell  us  in  one  breath  that  you  believe  in 
municipal  workshops.  I  do.  You  tell  us  you  believe 
that  all  money  ought  to  be  printed  on  paper.  I  do.  I 
believe  that  with  all  my  heart.  But,  then,  why  in  the 
world  do  you  not  go  and  fight  for  that?  For  the  simple 
reason  this  other  fight  is  on  hand,  and  I  am  going  to 
finish  the  fellow  I  have  by  the  throat  now. 

(A  question  from  the  audience:  ''If  the  government 
would  issue  greenbacks,  fifty  dollars  per  capita,  and  use 


6o  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

those  greenbacks  to  buy  out  the  banks  and  start  banks 
on  national  paper  currency,  what  would  be  the  result?") 
Mr.  Mills,  continuing:  The  answer  is  this:  We  are  on  a 
march,  and  the  march  is  nearly  over.  And  the  fifty  dol- 
lars greenbacks  per  capita  proposition  is  not  inscribed 
on  the  banner  that  is  leading  now.  To  attempt  to  re- 
organize in  the  face  of  the  enemy  is  to  give  them  a 
longer  lease  of  life,  and  to  defeat  ourselves  on  the  issues 
that  are  involved,  and  I  want  to  say  that  deliberately, — 
postpone  forever  the  opportunity  to  secure  either  bi- 
metallism, or  paper  money,  or  anything  else  but  a  gall- 
ing despotism  which  will  stand  for  a  thousand  years  on 
American  soil.  I  tell  you  we  have  pressed  the  gold  ring 
to  the  last  ditch. 

We  did  not  make  the  issue ;  if  I  had  made  it  I  would 
have  made  it  on  another  plan.  If  I  had  been  consulted 
I  would  have  had  the  great  battle  come  on  in  another 
place.  But  I  was  not  consulted.  I  am  simply  a  citizen 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  and  the  voice  of  des- 
tiny has  spoken.  The  issue  has  been  made  up,  lines 
have  been  drawn.  I  will  do  anything  I  can  do  for  any 
co-operative  enterprise  that  can  be  started  by  any  com- 
pany of  people  anywhere.  I  am  giving  all  my  waking 
hours  to  try  to  build  on  the  voluntary  basis  an  opportu- 
nity for  men  with  their  own  tools  on  their  own  soil  and 
in  their  own  shops  to  create  their  own  livelihood  with- 
out dependence  upon  any  money,  metal,  paper,  or  any- 
thing else.  I  will  do  anything  I  can  do  anywhere.  I  will 
cross  the  continent  if  need  be,  to  help  any  other,  if  he 
can  solve  the  problem, — I  would  walk  across  the  conti- 
nent if  need  be  to  help,  if  I  could  in  that  way,  help  any 
one  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  public  employment  of 
idle  labor.  There  is  not  one  company  of  reformers  in 
the  city  of  Chicago  that  I  will  not  clasp  hands  with  and 
help  to  the  last  measure  of  my  strength.  But,  my  broth- 
ers, to  push  any  one  issue  into  the  field,  to  divide  the 
silver  forces  and  start  a  warfare  among  themselves,  is  to 
give  the  victory  forever  to  Mark  Hanna  and  his  asso- 
ciates; while  we  cover  ourselves  with  rags,  and  doom 
our  children  to  hopeless  penury  forever. 


SOLOX,  THE  ANCIENT  LAW  GIVER. 

The  subject  this  afternoon  is  Solon;  Solon,  the  aiicient 
law-giver.  Solon  was  an  ancient  example  of  a  mod^^rn 
reformer.  He  was  a  Populist  born  out  of  due  season.  It 
was  live  hundred  and  ninety-four  years  before  Christ  that 
Solon  was^made  the  Archon,  the  ruler  of  Attica.  Attica's 
chief  city  was  Athens,  and  the  country  lying  round  about 
Atjhcns  pri'or  to  the  coming  of  Solon  had  been  placed  in  a 
position  of  very  great  distress.  The  property  of  all  the 
agricultural  districts  was  under  mortgage,  the  evidence  of 
the  mortgage  was  a  stone  pillar  set  up  on  the  land,  with  the 
name  of  the  man  wdio  .had  imade  the  loan  engraved  on  the 
pillar.  W'ben  there  was  no  land  with  which  to  secure  their 
debts  the  law  permitted  the  attachment  of  t)he  person.  A 
person  could  borrow  money,  and  pledge  in  security  his 
own  body.  It  was  not  only  "possible  to  take  the  land, 
take  all  the  personal  property,  and  take  the  person  of  the 
debtor  himself,  but  it  was  also  possible  to  attach  his 
family  and  sell  both  his  wife  and  his  dhildren  into  bondage 
along  -with  himself.  In  Athens  public  sales  of  At'henian 
citizens;  throughout  Attica  the  sales  of  the  bankrupts  who 
'had  been  unable  to  meet  the  obligations  they  had  assivmed 
had  converted  these  citizens  of  Attica  into  slaves.  They 
•had  been  taken  captive  and  sold  into  bondage  and  trans- 
ported into  other  lands.  The  burden  of  tJhe  debts  had 
become  so  great  that  their  payment  had  become  an  im- 
possibility, and  when  the  officers  were  sent  out  to  take 
possession  of  the  lands  under  foreclosure  they  were  met 
■with  resistance,  and  when  the  officers  were  sent  to 
attach  the  bodies  of  the  people  they  were  met  with  re- 
sistance, also.  General  disorder  as  well  as  despair  had 
taken  possession  of  all  Attica. 

6x 


62  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

Solon  belonged  to  a  family  of  the  aristocratic  portion 
of  AtJhens.  He  traced  his  lineage  back  to  some  of  the 
Greek  kings.  He  was  able  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
wealthy  classes,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  his  parents 
and  his  relations 'had  been  on  the  side  of 'the  masses  of  the 
people.  Both  the  rich  on  the  one  .hand,  and  the  poor  on 
the  other,  clamored  for  m.aking  Solon  the  Archoin  of 
Attica.  He  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  ofhce,  to  dis- 
appoint the  rich  men  because  he  did  so  much  for  the  poor 
people,  and  the  poor  people  on  the  O'tiher  hand  because 
;he  did  not  do  more.  He  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his 
office  with  his  country  given  over  to  disorder,  in  a  condi- 
tion -where  it  was  not  possible  to  enforce  the  laws,  and 
where  men  refused  any  longer  to  be  sold  into  slavery. 
Armed  resistance  met  tlhe  officer  wherever  he  went,  and 
disorder  and  chaos,  and  distress  were  characteristic  of  the 
whole  land. 

He  immediately  declared  that  all  farm  mortgages 
sihould  be  cancelled,  and  that  land  should  be  made  free. 
He  argued  that  whoever  owned  the  land  under  the  feet 
of  other  men  practically  owned  the  other  men.  He  de- 
clared that  the  emslavement  of  the  free  citizens  of  Athens 
had  been  a  wrong,  that  the  only  way  by  which  that  wrong 
could  be  corrected  was  by  cancelling  all  the  debts  based 
on  mortgage  claims  covering  all  the  lands  of  Attioa.  In  the 
same  way  he  argued,  and  in  the  same  way  he  acted,  with 
regard  to  all  that  body  of  debts  which  were  secured  by  the 
pledge  of  the  debtor's  person,  and  cancelled  those  as  well. 
When  he  had  done  this  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  en- 
force the  collection  of  a  debt  if  the  basis  of  its  security 
was  land,  for  the  land  was  free.  The  marble  stones  that 
stood  throughout  Attica  had  been  broken  down  and  their 
authority  had  been  annulled.  The  land  under  the  feet 
of  the  citizens  of  Attica  was  free,  and  the  farmers  were 
free.  If  the  debts  had  been  repudiated  these  men  had 
been  emancipated. 

The  same  thing  was  true  with  regard  to  the  debts 
claimed  against  the  bodies  of  men.  When  there  was  a  debt 
the  security  of  which  rested  againsit  a  man's  person  and  the 
law  proposed  to  attach  Ms  person  and  sell  him  into  slavery 


SOLON,    THE     ANCIENT     LAW     GIVER.  63 

the  debt  was  cancelled  and  the  man  was  made  free.  But 
tJhat  was  not  all.  He  assessed  the  property  of  Attica  and 
created  a  fund  with  which  he  sent  across  the  waters  to  the 
foreign  lands  and  purchased  the  Athenians  who  in  other 
days  had  been  sold  into  bondage,  and  placed  them  once 
more  on  Attic  soil,  where  they  might  listen  again  to  the 
strong,  sweet,  marvelous  accents  of  the  Attic  tongue.  This 
was  the  work  of  Solon.  Those  who  had  fallen  under  the 
bondage  of  debt  'were  purchased  back  out  of  their  foreign 
bcyidage  by  a  tax  laid  on  the  property  of  Attica.  The 
land  of  Attica  was  free,  the  men  of  Attica  were  free,  but 
all  debts  which  were  either  against  the  man,  or  the  soil 
under  the  man,  were  declared  null  and  void  once  and  for- 
ever. 

He  n)Ot  only  did  tfhis,  but  he  went  further.  The  volume 
of  money  'had  something  to  do  with  the  distress.  The 
piopulations  and  business  interests  had  outgrown  the 
volume  of  money,  and  in  order  to  ma-ke  the  remaining 
unpaid  debts  more  just  he  reduced  the  weight  of  the  metal 
in  the  money  by  about  twenty-seven  per  cent.  The  full 
body  of  every  debt  that  laid  claim  to  the  land,  or  to  the 
man,  and  twenty-sevem  per  cent,  of  all  other  debts  were 
cancelled  as  the  first  step  in  the  reform.  The  rich  man 
cried  out  against  this.  The  poor  man  cried  because  he  had 
not  been  given  larger  opportunities.  The  rich  on  the  one 
hand,  and  tihe  poor  on  the  other,  both  disclaiming,  dis- 
crediting this  great  reformer,  clamored  in  his  ears  and 
found  fault  with  his  work,  until  Solon,  who  had  brought 
back  from  the  foreign  lands  those  wlio  had  been  exiled 
under  the  operation  of  the  old  laws,  found  it  necessary  for 
him  himself  to  become  an  exile. 

Is  there  anything  corresponding  between  the  condi- 
tions which  prevailed  in  Attica,  and  made  Solon  the  great- 
est of  the  law-givers,  and  the  conditions  which  prevail  here 
to-day?  Remember,  this  work  of  Solon  made  him  famous. 
The  years  passed  by,  and  out  of  the  institutions  which  he 
created  Attica's  democracy  came  to  be.  The  institutions, 
the  laws,  the  philosophy,  the  literature,  the  marvelous 
language  of  Attica,  its  poetry,  its  songs,  its  sculpture — out 
of  tihe  institutions  which  grew  out  of  tlie  reforms  which  he 


64  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

carried  on  came  the  body  and  the  strength  gi  Grecian 

greatness.  But  Solon  was  not  alone  in  insisting  on  the 
fr-eedom  of  the  soil  or  the  infamy  of  the  bondage  of  an 
unpayable  debt. 

Possibly  a  greater  law-giver  than  Solon,  certainly  a 
man  who  commenced  with  a  people  as  helpless,  as  dis- 
orderly, as 'hopeless,  as  were  the  Athenians  in  the  time  of 
Solon  taught  the  same  things.  I  refer  to  Moses.  He 
started  with  a  eompany  of  slaves  so  disorderly,  so  im- 
moral, so  cowardly  in  their  life  that  it  was  impossible  CA^en 
to  use  the  generation  he  himself  belonged  to,  and  it  was 
necessary  'to  dweli  in  a  wilderness  unftil  that  generation 
should  pass  away,  and  until  those  w^ho  in  Egypt  had  felt 
on  their  backs  the  sting  of  the  slave-driver's  lash  had 
finally  died  in  the  wilderness,  and  their  children  born  in 
.the  wilderness  should  come  as  a  population  which  shoul4 
carry  on  the  effort  to  possess  the  new  land  and  build  a  new 
s'tate.  And  stranded  in  the  wilderness,  this  man,  with 
the  open  sky  above  ^him,  and  the  great  multitudes  of  the 
wandering,  (helpless  and  defenseless  exile  slaves. and  the 
ohildren  of  slaves  around  him,  devised  ne<\v  institutions  for 
die  new  land  which  should  build  in  Palestine  the  ancient 
republic,  wihere  no  poverty  should  be,  where  no  slave 
should  be,  and  where  liberty  first  of  all  was  establisihed 
down  on  the  ground  among  men,  where  poetr)%  and  litera- 
ture, and  philosophy,  and  religion  should  be  supreme. 
This  Moses  who  created  the  institutions  that  made  Pales- 
tine one  of  the  teachers  of  our  race,  declared  that  no  debt 
s'hould  outlive  the  generation  that  created  it,  and  not  once, 
but  many  times,  put  into  the  fixed  institutions  of  Judea 
tha't  once  in  fifty  years  the  debts  that  lay  against  the  land 
and  the  debts  that  lay  agins^:  the  people,-  and  tilie  debts  that 
lay  claim  against  the  industry  of  his  race,  sihould  be  de- 
clared null  and  void,  and  that  if  any  family  had  lost  its  in- 
heritance In  lands  and  the  old  household  had  passed  Into 
other  hands,  In  fifty  years,  When  the  generation  whilcih 
had  lost  It  'had  Itself  passed  away,  then  the  children  In  the 
family  to  w^hlch  It  was  given  In  the  first  place  should  re- 
inherlt  It  and  repossess  It.  Moses,  the  greatest  law-giver 
of  the  ancient  Asiatic  republic,  and  Solon,  tilie  greatest 


SOLON,    THE     ANCIENT     LAW     GIVER.  65 

law-giver  of  the  European  races,  joined  together  in  de- 
claring that  t)hat  debt  which  should  outlive  tilie  generation 
w'hich  created  it  is  by  right,  and  ought  to  be,  null  and  void. 
But  let  us  tJhink  for  a  little  tini'e  with  regard  to  our 
situation  ihere.  Are  there  no  mortgages  covering  the 
property  of  this  country?  Are  there  any  stone  pillars  set 
up  on  the  farms  of  this  country  signifying  tiliat  the  title  of 
Hhe  land  is  based,  not  in  the  man  who  occupies  it,  but  in 
some  other  man?  The  loan  companies  and  farm  mort- 
gage s}'ndicates  have  spread  riieir  work  out  over  t?he  Mis- 
sissippi Valley  and  have  covered  the  industry  of  this  coun- 
try with  a  mortgage  that  has  practically  foreclosed  and 
taken  possession  of  it  all.  Tdie  farmer  that  is  out  of  debt 
is  an  exception,  and  the  farmer  who  is  in  debt  is  in  debt 
•under  a  contract  wiherein  he  contracted  to  do  one  thing, 
anxl  'Under  tihe  law  is  required  to  do  another  thing.  It  is 
stated  .that  among  the  processes  by  which  the  ancient 
citizens  of  Attica  became  indebted  and  the  lands  mort- 
gaged were  wrongs.  The  historian  does  not  attempt  to 
tell  us  what  they  were.  W'hat  they  were  we  do  not  know, 
but  it  is  insisted  that  back  of  the  debt  that  Solon  repudi- 
ated was  a  claim  that  tliere  was  a  great  wrong  which  as 
a  matter  of  fair  play  between  man  and  man  demanded  its 
repudiation.  Any  debt  outliving  its  generation  is  itself  a 
wrong.  But  suppose  I  lend  you  a  horse,  I  come  to  you  to 
get  my  horse  back  again.  You  can  pay  a  debt  of  that 
sort,  because  you  have  something  to  pay  with.  You  have 
the  horse.  Again,  yoti  borrow  a  horse  from  me,  and 
while  you  have  the  horse  away  I  get  the  law  changed,  and 
•when  you  come  back  to  pay  the  debt,  instead  of  being 
contented  with  one  horse  I  demand  two.  But  you  have, 
nor  have  liad,  but  one.  Has  anything  of  that  sort  taken, 
place  ill  this  country?  Tihe  debts  that  represent  the  farm 
•mortgages  generally  represent  one  horse  tiliat  was  bor- 
rowed, and  from  t<hree  to  four  horses  are  required  to  make 
the  payment  under  the  law.  INIeasured  in  what  labor  can 
produce,  measured  in  the  value  of  our  toil  to-day,  the 
debts  that  cover  the  American  land,  and  the  American 
people,  are  in  no  proper  sense  a  payment  which  the  debtor 
ever  engaged  to  pay.    He  engaged  to  pay  certain  sums 


66  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

when  both  gold  and  silver  had  free  access  to  the  mints  of 
this  country,  .and  tihe  value  of  a  dollar  was  detenmined  by 
tihe  labor  necessary  to  dig  either  gold  or  silver  out  of  the 
ihills  out  of  which  to  make  the  dollar.  But  silver  was 
demonetized,  tihe  mints  were  closed  against  the  silver  and 
t)he  mines  were  shut  down.  The  source  of  supply  for 
money  was  made  smaller  by  half.  The  purchasing  power 
of  each  separate  dollar  was  made  larger,  and  whereas 
horses  sold  for  one  hundred  dollars  then,  they  sell  for 
thirty  or  forty  dollars  now.  Whereas  cotton  sold  for 
twenty  cents  then,  it  sells  for  five  now.  Whereas  wool  sold 
for  forty  cents  then,  it  does  not  sell  at  all  now.  Whereas 
men  were  able  to  earn  from  two  to  three  dollars  a  day 
with  tiheir  labor  then,  they  are  unable  to  secure  employ- 
ment at  any  price  now.  What  do  you  mean  by  meeting 
obligations?  Pay  back  hour  for  hour  the  labor  values 
that  you  borrowed.  Pay  back  head  for  head  the  cajttle, 
Jhorses,  sheep.  Return  all  that  you  obtainied,  no  m.ore, 
no  less,  for  the  man  or  the  generation  who  makes  a  debt — 
that  is  just.  But  the  law  has  been  so  changed  that  the 
demand  against  the  mortgaged  property  of  America 
to-day  is  not  a  demand  for  a  return  of  what  was  borrowed, 
but  a  demand  for  more  than  was  borrowed.  That  is  not 
just.  He  promised  to  do  one  thing.  He  is  required  by  a 
change  in  the  law  to  do  a  'dififerent  and  a  more  difficult 
thing.  There  has  been  connivance  to  defraud.  The  claim- 
ant must  s'how  clean  hands.  To  deny  his  claim  is  not 
repudiating  a  just  debt.  It  is  very  justly  repudiating  the 
last  act  in  a  colossal  servitude.  It  is  denying  the  use  of 
tihe  court  to  enforce  a  crime  against  the  very  persons  for 
whose  protection  the  court  itself  was  created.  But  these 
debts  have  not  only  been  increased  by  law  so  that  the 
claim  is  m^ade  for  more  than  is  promised,  but  they  are 
shifted  for  payment  to  the  new  generation  who  never 
made  any  promises  at  all. 

The  proposition  is  made  in  New  York  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  new  company  which  dhall  loan  money  to  the 
farmers  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest.  The  law  now  permits 
the  paym'ont  of  six  or  seven  or  eig^t  per  cent.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  so  lower  the  rate  of  interest  on  farm  mortgages 


SOLON,    THE     ANCIENT     LAW     GIVER.  67 

tlmt  'the  farm'cr  who  cannot  now  pay  eight  per  cent,  on 
the  old  miortgage  may  be  able  to  pay  four  per  cent,  on  a 
new  one.  But  is  it  not  perfectly  clear  that  if  he  cannot  pay 
■eight  per  cent,  interest,  without  the  principal,  it  will  be 
equally  impossible  for  hiim  to  pay  four  per  cent,  with  the 
principal?  Any  reform  w*hich  still  leaves  no  provision  for 
the  payment  of  the  debts,  the  retirement  of  the  principal 
so  that  interest  may  cease,  is  not  sufficient.  We  insist  on 
the  payment  of  debts,  not  the  everlasting  payment  of  in- 
terest on  debts  wihioh  can  n^ver  be  paid.  This  is  what  to 
do:  Where  the  debts  can-not  be  paid  any  way,  go  into 
bankruptcy,  and  -where  there  is  any  possibility  of  paying 
the  debt,  let  it  be  provid-ed  for  according  to  the  third  act  of 
Solon,  not  by  reducing  the -weight  of  the  metal  which  is  in 
the  coin,  but  by  restoring  to  the  silver  of  our  everlasting 
hills  the  rights  of  our  mints. 

W'hat  are  the  conditions  in  this  laud  of  ours?  We  will 
go  on  with  the  foreclosing,  s'hall  we?  Here  in-tili-e  city  of 
Chicago  Hettie  Green,  the  great,  popular,  strong-hearted, 
public-spirited,  good,  patriotic  stateswoman  and  Chicago 
citizen — Hettie  Green  came  here  the  other  day  to  fore- 
close four  millions  of  Chicago  mortgages.  Four  millions 
of  Chicago  mortgages,  and  the  smallest  mortgage  in  the 
list  for  twenty-five  thousand.  No  mortgage  for  fifty  or 
seventy-five  dollars.  No  pawn-shop  transaction  t)here. 
No  house  and  lot  deal  involved  in  this.  It  is  not  the  poor 
working-man  she  is  after.  She  deals  with  the  large  fellows. 
The  sensible,  hard-headed  business  ^men.  She  is  coming 
to  deal  with  the  men  who  knew  better  than  to  vote  for 
Bryan  and  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  She  is  coming  to 
deal  with  the  men  who  voted  for  McKinley  for  fear  if  they 
did  not  vote  for  McKinley  they  would  not  be  able  to  pay 
the  interest  on  their  mortgages.  They  voted  for  Mc- 
Kinley. They  have  sent  McKinley  to  the  White  House, 
and  Hetti-e  Greenihas  arrived  to  send  th-em  to  hades,  along 
with  the  rest  of  us.  When  the  business  interests  of  the 
'city  of  Chicago,  represented  by  four  millions  of  mortgages, 
the  smallest  one  in  the  list  for  twenty-five  thousand,  go  to 
protest  for  foreclosure  it  means  that  the  people  who  are 
able  to  borrow  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  not  th-e  riflf- 


68  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

raff,  the  ragged  fellows,  tihe  men  who  did  not  know  any 
better  than  to  vote  for  Bryan,  it  means  t/hat  the  large 
fellows  are  going  to  fall  into  the  isam-e  maelstroim  and  be 
overwhelmed  by  the  same  tide  which  has  smitten  the  rest 
of  us.  It  is  not  only  true  with  regard  to  the  debts  here 
in  tihe  city  of  Chicago;  it  is  equally  true  tihroughoiit  the 
country.  There  is  farm  land  in  Illinois  to-day  that  the 
plowshare  'has  not  touched,  and  will  not  toucih  in  this  year 
of  our  Lord  (or  the  other  fellow),  1897.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  year  1897  is  not  the  year  of  our  Lord,  after 
all,  and  that  His  year  is  not  going  to  come  until  1898  or 
1900.  There  is  land  in  Illinois  that  the  cultivator  will  not 
touc'h,  there  are  s'liops  in  Illinois  in  which  a  wheel  will  not 
turn,  there  is  raw  material  in  Illinois  that  will  spoil  while 
waiting  for  some  one  to  add  his  labor  and  make  it  more 
valuable.  And  none  of  these  things  are  in  possession  of 
the  riff-raff. 

I  was  riding  into  the  city  the  other  day  and  noticed  a 
freight-car  coming  towards  the  city.  I  noticed  it  was  in 
a  general  sort  of  dilapidated  condition,  almost  as  way- 
worn as  a  Republican  campaign  promise.  I  wondered 
what  was  the  matter  that  a  great  railway  'company  sho'uld 
•undertake  to  do  business  witn  such  cars,  and  soi  I  set 
myself  to  examining  the  freight  cars.  I  passed  at  least  a 
thousand  cars,  and  but  one  single  car  in  all  the  list  had  any 
fresh  paint  on  its  sides,  and  that  was  one  with  two  boards 
painted,  just  added  in  the  repair  shops,  while  the  balance 
of  the  car,  tho'ugh  sadly  needing  it,  was  unpainted  like 
tlie  rest.  They  w^ere  not  cars  waiting  for  repairs,  they 
were  cars  out  on  the  track  doing  service  for  the  railways  of 
t'his  country,  rotten  and  falling  to  pieces  for  want  of  care. 
I  commenced  to  look  at  the  houses,  and  I  rode  from  some- 
where down  about  40th  street  to  the  Polk  street  depot 
without  seeing  one  single,  solitary  'house  with  any  fresh 
paint  on  it  along  the  way.  Go  down  along  the  streets  in 
any  direction  and  see  how  the  windows  are  being  broken, 
see  'how  desertion  and  ruin  is  visiting  Chicago.  Dr.  Hillis 
said  it  was  because  the  socialists  have  made  it  the  center 
of  tiheir  propaganda.  Dr.  Hillis,  listen  a  minute!  The 
fellows  who  are  in  a  position  to  put  paint  on  these  deserted 


SOLON,    THE     ANCIENT     LAW     GIVER.  69 

houses,  to  put  business  into  these  warehouses,  and  to  put 
paint  and  repairs  on  our  cars  are  not  the  men  who  voted 
for  William  J.  Bryan.  These  men  of  affairs  voted  for  Mc- 
Kinley.  He  tells  us  it  is  because  workingmen  are  making 
this  a  center  of  agitation  until  the  great  and  leading  fam- 
ilies of  Chicago  have  gone  down  tx)  live  along  the  Jriudson. 
I  suppose  Che  way  for  workingmen  to  fix  Chicago  so  it 
will  be  all  right  is  to  keep  still.  Let  us  keep  st'.il,  and  then 
maybe  Yerkes  will  abandon  his  palace  on  the  Hudson  and 
come  back  to  live  with  us.  I  wonder  if  it  would  not  be  a 
good  scheme,  anyway,  for  us  to  abandon  all  agitation  in 
Dhe  United  States,  and  then  maybe  Astor  might  come  back 
from  Great  Britain  and  consent  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  coun- 
try he  has  so  long  disgraced.  I  wonder  if  it  would  not  be 
a  good  idea  for  us  to  close  up  the  public  schools  and  to 
stop  studying  public  questions,  anyway.  Dr.  Hillis,  if 
you  will  provide  some  way  by  which  we  can  get  the  mort- 
gages off  our 'houses  we  wall  provide  some  way  to-  put  the 
paint  on.  Dr.  Hillis,  if  you  will  provide  some  way  by 
which  the  hungry  can  be  fed,  and  the  ragged  can^  be 
clothed,  not  in  charity,  but  by  'honest  toil,  wt  will  under- 
take to  furnish  plenty  of  "leading  families"  for  Chicago, 
whose  appreciation  of  fine  art  w'ill  not  be  lim.itec'  to  the 
arts  as  taught  in  Fagin's  school.  Dr.  Hillis,  your  leading 
citizens  \Vhose  abandonment  of  Chicago  you  lament  ihave 
been  leading  citizens  in  that  they  have  led  their  fellow 
citizens  to  the  pit  and  they  have  fallen  in,  while  these 
leaders  of  yours  'have  walked  round  the  deadfall  they  set 
for  others  and  have  gone  to  build  their  palaces  on  the 
Hudson. 

Solon  was  a  great  and  wise  man,  but  he  did  not  have 
to  deal  with  the  Rothschilds.  Solon  taxed  the  people  at 
home  and  sent  abroad  and  brought  back  the  exiles,  but 
they  did  not  have  any  institution  in  Solon's  time  by  which 
the' citizens  of  Attica  could  be  the  slaves  of  a  foreigner 
and  still  stay  at-home  to  do  his  work.  We  have  a  new  in- 
stitution now.  No  danger  of  our  being  sold  in  the  market 
arid  transported  to  Europe  to  black  Mr.  Rothsc'hild's 
shoes.  He  uses  our  services  and  enforces  our  bondage 
in  another  way.     The  British  gold  syndicate,  with  its 


70  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

headquarters  at  our  own  great  banks,  collects  from  other 
nations  millions  of  interest  each  year,  and  lays  tribute  on 
our  nation  along  with  the  rest.  And  every  woman  toiling 
in  .a  sweat  shop,  every  miner  digging  in  t/he  earth,  every 
toiler  in  the  pineries  of  the 'mountain  side,  every  black  man 
in  tihe  Southern  cotton  field  or  field  of  sugar  cane,  every 
helpless  boy — these  are  simply  evidences  of  American 
bondage  to  an  international  gold  syndicate  tihat  created 
our  debt  through  crime,  and  enforces  it  through  processes 
which  .are  brutal,  inhuman,  and  outrageous  beyond  com- 
parison. If  these  men  would  only  come  over  here  and 
come  to  our  own  doors  and  ask  for  the  bread  from  our 
children's  mouths,  ask  for  th-e  clothing  off  their  backs, 
ask  for  possession  of  our  lands,  and  our  houses,  tihat  pos- 
session would  never  be  given- tlhem;  but  they  stay  abroad, 
they  send  their  agents  to  Washington,  where  by  legisla- 
tion, secret,  infamous  and  criminal,  they  change  the  stand- 
ard of  America,  they  multiply  our  debts^  they  possess 
'themselves  of  our  securities,  and  then  they  turn  loose,  not 
a  company  of  British  red  coats  to  take  possession  of  the 
living  of  our  children  and  rob  us  of  our  own,  they  tunni 
looseonthe  possessions  of  America  the  mortgage,  and  the 
mortgage  secured  and  protected  by  our  own  officers.  What 
is  the  use  of  sending  an  English  red  coat  over  here  to  rob 
an  American,  so  long  as  a  Yankee  officer  will  do  it  right 
here  at  home?  What  is  the  use  of  bringing  a  foreigner 
to  do  a  foreigner's  work  when  our  own  citizens  are  tum- 
bling over  eaoh  other  in  their  haste  to  make  connection 
with  the  foreign  money  power  and  obtain  an  opportunity 
to  rob  by  law  their  helpless  countrymen?  What  is  the 
use  of  European  authorities  sending  soldiers  over  here  to 
use  their  railways  owned  over  there,  owned  over  there, 
operated  over  .here,  when  they  can  use,  under  the  authority 
of  Grover  Cleveland,  thcisoldiers  of  Uncle  Sam? 

Now,  seriously,  what  is  to  be  done  in  the  midst  of  a 
combination  of  oircum'Stances  like  this?  Shall  we  declare 
that  the  land  shall  be  free,  as  Solon  declared  that  it  should 
be  free?  Shall  we  demand  tihat  men  once  more  shall  be 
free  men,  without  regard  to  the  man  who  has  a  mortgage 
on  'his  body,  or  a  claim  against  his  children?    Shall  we 


SOLON,    THE    ANCIENT    LAW    GIVER.  7I 

demand  again  that  the  law  that  promotes  the  selling  of  a 
woman  and  her  children  into  bondage  shall  not  be  re- 
peated in  America?  That  no  American  shall  be  sold  into 
foreign  bondage,  or  wihat  is  the  same  thing,  be  permit'ted 
to  toil  only  to  send  his  products  abroad  for  the  use  of 
foreigners?  This  is  my  answer  to  all  this.  Either  the  con- 
ditions which  are  ripening  for  disaster  will  be  speedily 
clianged  in  America,  or  the  mutiny  which  met  the  ancient 
Greek  will  meet  the  American  officer  and  the  disorder  that 
spread  over  Attica  will  bring  confusion  worse  confounded 
in  America.  What  do  you  advise?  This  is  what  I  advise: 
Maintain  the  peace  at  all  cost.  What  further?  Go  to  the 
ballot  box  on  next  election  day  and  send  frooi  every  ham- 
let in  the  United  States  of  America  representatives  to  our 
State  Legislatures  and  to  our  National  Congress  who 
will  strike  for  the  restoration  of  that  money  under  which 
our  obligations  were  created.  Are  you  standing  here 
to-day  to  say  that  Solon  was  a  wise  man?  The  conditions 
under  which  he  operated  are  similar  to  the  ones  under 
w'hioh  we  are  suffering  now,  and  therefore  to  repudiate  is 
wisdom?  No.  I  am  contending  that  Solon  was  a  wise, 
just,  patriotic  man.  That  question  I  do  not  need  to  argue. 
It  is  the  verdict  of  the  twenty-five  centuries  which  have 
followed  him.  \\'hen  you  speak  of  our  City  Hall  you  call 
•the  Aldermen  over  there  Solons.  Of  course  you  do  it  in 
contempt,  not  for  Solon,  but  for  the  Aldermen.  Only  the 
other  day  I  picked  up  a  newspaper,  and  it  said  the  Solons 
at  Springfield  were  doing  so  and  so.  Twenty-five  cen- 
turies since  the  days  of  Solon  the  human  race  has  been 
struggling  with  the  problems  which  he  solved,  and  each 
one  of  them  has  written  down  as  the  greatest  la^w  giver  of 
them  all  the  name  of  that  man  who  said  the  land  must  be 
free  and  the  -men  must  be  free,  and  that  foreign  bondage 
must  cease  once  and  forever.  I\Ir.  Mills,  are  you  willing  to 
say  again,  here  and  now,  that  in  America  the  land  ouglit 
to  be  free?  Yes,  every  inch  of  American  soil  ought  not 
only  to  be  free  now,  but  to  remain  free  forever.  Are  you 
willing  to  say  that  in  America  whenever  any  obligation 
involves  the  bondage  of  a  man  and  his  family  that  that  is 
slavery,  and  that  slavery  shall  not  be  permitted  in  Amer- 


72  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

ica  since  Lyman  Trumbull  wrote  that  splendid  passage 
into  the  American  Constitution,  that  neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude  sihould  be  permitted  here  forever? 
When  an  obligation  unfairly  created  makes  of  the  debtor 
a  slave  that  slavery  is  the  crime  of  crimes,  and  there  can 
be  no  defense  for  slavery  in  any  form?  My  answer  is 
straight  and  sharp  and  short.  Yes'.  Let  tdie  people  and 
tihe  land  beneath  the  people  be  forever  free,  and  slavery, 
w^hether  the  fruit  of  war  or  pillage  or  mortgage  or  bonds, 
slavery  of  any  form  or  for  any  cause,  is  forever  the  crime 
of  crimes.  Then  shall  we  cancel  all  the  debts?  No. 
What  then?  Do  what  Solon  did,  and  let  the  volume  of 
the  money  catch  up  with  the  population  of  America.  Do 
this.  Give  us  the  free  coinage  of  silver  in  America  at  the 
ratio  of  sixteen  to  one,  and  then  if  any  foreign  syndicate 
/has  its  agents  buy  up  the  silver  mines  and  close  them 
down,  then  nationalize  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of 
America,  and  under  the  direction  of  the  American  Gov- 
ernment employ  the  idle  labor  of  America  and  dig  new 
dollars  out  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  pay  dollar  for 
dollar  every  dollar  we  owe.  One  thing  is  absolutely  cer- 
tain. When  Abraham  Lincoln  consented  to  the  national 
debt  ihe  gave  his  consent  to  the  obligation  looking  wist- 
fully to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  When  General  Grant  was 
President  of  the  United  States  he  sent  a  message  to  Con- 
gress urging  the  building  of  a  mint  in  Chicago  for  the 
coinage  of  silver  dollars  two  >"ears  after  the  secret  ''crime 
of  '73"  had  destroyed  .silver.  General  Grant  proposed 
what  I  am  talking  about  here  now,  and  Lincoln  had  it  all 
in  mind  \\'<hen  he  consented  to  the  national  debt.  They 
gave  us  a  debt  five  dollars  in  bonds  for  one  in  service.  We 
deny  no  just  obligation.  We  will  settle  for  tihe  sake  of 
peace,  paying  five  dollars  for  one — we  will  submit  to  any- 
'tihing,  just  so  payment  s'hall  be  possible.  But  they  shall 
not  maiitiply  again  these  charges  and  so  fix  these  debts 
in  perpetuity  that  neither  we  nor  our  children  after  us 
shall  be  able  to  pay  forever,  and  then  through  interest 
charges  make  both  them  and  us  their  bondsmen  to  the  end 
of  .time.  Show  us  a  way  out,  not  for  the  payment  of  in- 
terest only,  but  for  the  disciharge  of  both  principal  and 


SOLON,    THE     ANCIENT     LAW     GIVER.  73 

interest,  for  bot'h  must  be  within  our  ability  to  pay  or 
•neither  is  binding.  So  reasoned  Lincoln  when  he  con- 
sented to  the  debts.  So  reasoned  Grant  when  he  planned 
for  a  speedy  payment.  So  reasoned  Solon  when  he  made 
Attica  free.    So  Freedom  shall  be  ours. 


THE  FOLLY  AND  CRIME  OF  ANARCHY. 

To-day  we  are  to  speak  on  The  Folly  a-nd  Crini'e  of 
Anarchy.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  having  any 
share  at  all  in  ^nrnking  any  attacks  upon  any  company  of 
men  because  of  any  philosophy  which  they  believe  in,  or 
any  economic  views  which  are  th'eirs.  This  address  this 
afternooin  is  'not  an  attack  upon  tihe  m^en  who  believe  in 
the  doctrines  of  philosophical  anardhy.  This  address  this 
afternoon  is  .not  an  attack  upon  anybody,  but  I  could 
hardly  say  it  is  not  an  attack  upon  anything.  I  am  not  a 
philosophical  anarchist  -myself,  nor  an  ananchis-t  of  any 
other  variety.  Here  is  one  proposition  which  I  under- 
stand is  quite  generally  believed  among  philosophical 
anarchists.  No  government  can  govern  a  man  as  well 
as  that  man  can  govern  himself.  I  believe  the  tim'C  is 
going  to  come  some  time — ^^and  I  am  doing  all  I  can  to 
'hurry  that  tim.e  along — ^^when  a  man  s'hall  dO'  that  w-hich 
is  good  in  his  own  eyes,  and  doing  that  whicih  is  good  in^ 
'his  own  eyes  will  not  be  bound  to  the  autho-rity  of  any 
other  'man.  I  believe  that  no  man  can  govern  a^notiher  as 
well  as  that  man  can  govern  himself,  if  he  wall.  W'hat  if 
he  won't?  I  know  quite  a  large  number  of  people  ^viho 
won't. 

Civil  authority  exists  for  miaintaining  the  peace,  for  the 
organization  of  common  interests,  and  possibly  for  that 
organization  upon  a  coercive  basis.  That  coercion  will 
finally  cease,  and  the  function  of  governm'ent  will  be  more 
largely  adm'inistratlve,  .not  merely  coercive,  I  firmly  be- 
lieve. That  the  time  will  co.me  when  the  gatling  gun  and 
the  policeman's  club  will  oeas'e  to  be  the  most  appropriate 
symbols  of  authority  I  firmly  believe,  and  that  instead  of 
the  s'word  and  the  spear,  the  plowslhare  and  the  pruning 

74 


THE     I'OLLY     AND     CRIME     OF     ANARCHY.  75 

'hook  will  come  to  be  the  instruments  of  man's  most  hon- 
orable activity.  So  far  as  1  am  able  to  study  tih-e  situation 
myself,  there  is  no  form  of  anarchy  that  1  have  ever  heard 
about,  or  read  about,  or  listened  to,  that  it  was  possible 
for  me  to  give  my  consent  to.  The  term  anarchy  means 
no 'head.  Anarchy  is  the  opposite  of  arahy.  "En  archy  ho 
logos,"  those  are  the  first  words  in  the  gospel,  according 
to  St.  John,  in  tihe  Greek,  "In  the  beginning  was  the 
word."  An,  no;  archy,  beginning;  an-archy,  no  begin- 
ning. The  word  used  there  as  the  beginning  is  the  same 
term  which  we  used  a  few  days  ago  wlien  w^e  were  speak- 
ing together  here  about  Solon,  the  ancient  law  giver,  who 
was  the  Archon  of  Attica.  Archon  is  derived  from  the 
same  word.  He  was  t!lie  governor,  the  ruler,  the  principal 
citizen  of  Attica,  and  the  term  Archon,  the  beginning,  the 
head,^he  starting  point,  the  seat  of  power,  came  to  mean 
government,  and,  An-ardion,  no  government;  so  anarchy 
-means  the  opposite  of  govermnent;  means  no  head,  no 
■starting  point,  no  plan.  That  is  the  simplest  statement 
that  can  be  made,  I  think,  with  regard  to  the  real  meaning 
of  the  term  anarchy. 

But  we  ought  to  bear  in  mind  that  tihe  derivation  of  a 
word  does  not  always  determine  just  exactly  whata  word 
means ;  sometimes  it  means  one  thing  in  its  derivation,  but 
means  quite  a  dififerent  tihing  in  its  use.  Som.etimes  a  word 
which  is  a  word  of  contempt  grows  to  be  a  word  of  honor, 
and  sometimes 'words  of  honor,  by  some  misfortune,  grow 
to  be  terms  of  discredit.  The  term  Christian  is  such  a 
term  as  that.  It  was  given  to  the  followers  of  tihe  Nazarene 
in  contempt,  and  they  bore  the  name  first  in  scorn.  The 
word  was  not  used  at  first,  when  Jesus  was  here  on  earth. 
It  was  some  years  after  His  crucifixion  before  those  who 
had  been  His  disciples  were  called  after  His  name.  The 
New  Testament  has  the  word  in  it  only  once,  and  then  it 
says,  "They  were  first  called  Christians  at  Antioch,"  and 
it  is  universal  opinion,  .so  far  as  I  am  intformed,  that  they 
were  first  called  Christians  there  in  contempt.  The  same 
was  true  in  regard  to  the  term  Methodists,  and  later  tihe 
Salvation  Army. 

There  are  some  men  still  who  regard  Christian  as  a 


^6  evolutionarV   politics. 

term  of  reproach,  and  it  is  sometimes  a  serious  mistake  to 
call  a  man  such  a  name  as  that,  but  ordinarily  men  no 
longer  object  to  being  called  Christian  gentlemen.  But 
when  they  do  object,  of  course  the  objection  ought  to  be 
sustained.  But  few  men  who  are  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Church  any  longer  feel  any  injury  is  done  them  when 
they  are  called  Methodists.  Tlhey  commenced  a  hundred 
years  ago  to  stand  up  and  say  they  were  Methodists,  but 
now  the  brick-bats  have  all  receded  into  the  background, 
and  it  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a  term  of  contempt  to  be 
called  a  Metihodist. 

Well,  in'  the  same  way  the  term  Abolitionist,  the  way 
;tihat  word  used  to  be  pronounced  was  abolition-ist  (pro- 
nounced with  a  prolonged  hiss),  but  after  awhile  instead 
of  giving  tihem  banquets,  with  eggs  that  had  not  been 
properly  prepared,  and  instead  of  regarding  the  term  as 
one  of  reproach,  these  men  came  to  be  regarded  as  men 
who  had  stood  bravely  in  the  center  of  a  great  fight.    I  do- 
not  think  I  will  be  going  very  far  out  of  the  way  if  I  call 
attention  in  this  connection  to  Mr.  Blaine's  remarkable 
statement  with  regard  to  the  Abolitionists.    He  said,  the 
time  was  when  the  abolitionists  in  tihis  country  had  no 
prottction  in  the  courts,  could  in  no  way  appeal  to  the 
defense  of  the  law,  that  to  be  accused  of  any  crime  and  be 
brought  before  a  justice  meant  sure- conviction ;  that  to 
sue  a  man  in  the  courts  and  have  attention  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  man  w^ho  was  the  plaintiff  was  an  abolitionist 
•was  sure  to  give  the  case  to  the  defendant.     Now,  tihi'S  is 
Mr.  Blaine's  statement  with  regard  to  the  positions  that 
the  abolitionists  once  occupied.    That  term  that  was  such 
a  term  of  scorn,  that  brought  such  a  cloud  of  hateful  re- 
gard that  in  tlhis  land  of  ours  there  was  no  justice  for  them, 
no  rigthts  before  the  courts— it  was  only  a  little  while  ago 
that  that  was  true.    There  an-e  men  seated  here  this  after- 
noon who  know  how  true  it  was.     To-day  it  is  equally 
tri'te;  there  are  -men  among  us  who  can  be  accused  of  any 
crime,  and  convicted  and  hanged,  not  because  they  are 
guilty,  but  because  they  are  the  friends  of  the  oppressed, 
and  have  the  hatred  of  tihe  trusts  and  the  combinations 
•which  rob  us  all.    The  term  abolitionist,  which  was  the 


THE     FOLLY     AND     CRIME     OF     ANARCHY.  77 

term  of  contempt,  by-and-by  became  the  term  of  honor. 
Il  is  barely  possible  the  term  anarchist  may  sometime 
become  the  term  of  honor.  1  stood  in  a  town  and  saw 
a  curious  thing.  There  were  probably  twenty-five  Uhou- 
sand  people  in  town  who  had  come  to  t?he  town  for  the 
purpose  of  seeing  a  Presidential  candidate.  Down  t'he 
street  marched  a  company  of  young  men,  and  on  each 
man's  back  was  a  great  large  placard  tied  with  a  string 
and  on  the  card  was  the  word  "anarchist,"  and  they 
traveled  up  and  down  the  streets  of  Mt.  Vernon  tdie  day 
Mr.  Bryan  was  there,  and  tihe  great  mass  of  people  who 
liad  heard  Bryan  called  an  anarchist,  and  Altgeld,  and  the 
other  advocates  of  free  silver  called  anarchists,  s'houted,  "I 
am  an  anarchist."  Well,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  if 
Altgeld  and  Bryan  are  anarchists,  eitrher  a  man  of  a  cer- 
tain variety  will  have  to  move  to  Europe  in  a  few  years,  or 
he  must  have  a  more  cordial  feeling  than  he  does  now 
towards  the  term  anarchist. 

When  we  speak  of  these  men  as  anarchists  you  know  it 
is  said  as  a  joke.  There  are  men  who  are  really  in  earnest 
who  call  themselves  anarchists,  and  are  glad  to  bear  the 
name.  There  are  three  classes  of  anarchists,  with  regard 
to  which  I  wish  to  speak  this  afternoon. 

In  the  first  place,  men  who  disbelieve  in  the  use  of 
force,  who  sincerely  believe  that  all  use  of  force  is  wrong, 
that  it  is  not  only  wrong,  but  that  it  is  unwise,  and  that 
•every  blow  that  is  struck  against  another  sooner  or  later 
brings  back  the  blow  in  some  oth'er  form ;  t\hat  every  use 
of  violence  in  the  end  does  more  harm  than  it  is  possible 
for  it  to  do  good.  Men  who  refuse  to  use  violence  against 
others,  and  who  object  to  having  others  use  violence 
against  them.  Such  as  these  object  to  the  forceful  side 
of  government,  and  in  that  sense  are  they  anarchists. 
Tolstoi,  the  most  splendid  teacher  of  them  all,  standing 
over  against  the  old  wrongs  and  pleading  for  tilie  new 
conditions,  contends  that  they  cannot  be  created  by  might 
nor  power.  Tolstoi  objects  to  use  of  force  in  any  place 
and  in  any  way,  and  in  that  sense  Tolstoi  is  an  anarchist. 
Mr.  Ernest  Crosby,  the  son  of  Dr.  Howard  Crosby,  of 
New  York,  a  man  of  splendid  ability,  a  writer  who  is  rarely 


78  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

equalled,  a  reformer  in  this  coiintr}'  of  ours  now,  prob- 
ably the  most  earnest  disciple  of  Tolstoi  in  America,  was 
in  Chicago  a  few  days  ago.  Mr.  Ernest  Crosby  does  not 
believe  in  the  policeman's  gun  or  club,  the  gatling  gun, 
or  any  use  of  force  anywhere,  and  as  such,  of  course,  from 
that  standpoint -would  be  counted  an  anarohist.  But  when: 
we  talk  of  amarchists  in  speaking  one  to  anotlher  tdiat  is 
.not  what  we  have  in  mind.  Whafcever  anarchy  may  mean 
in  the  dictio'Uarv,  that  is  not  what  it  mean's  on  the  street 
corner.  That  is  not  what  men  mean  when  they  boast  that 
they  themselves  are  ready  for  anarchy. 

There  are  others  who  contend  that  those  who  object 
to  all  civil  authority  may  by  volimtary  asso'ciation  accom- 
plish for  society  without  civil  authority  all  that  may  be 
accomplished  wath  civil  authority. 

But  these  are  not  the  men  in  mind  when  we  talk  about 
the  folly  and  the  crim'C  of  anarchy.  There  is  another  class 
of  anarchists,  who  do  not  believe  in  centralized  authority, 
in  the  use  of  force;  who  do  not  believe  in  any  foron  of  gov- 
ernment that  exists  anywhere  now,  who  object  to  all  formis 
of  force  and  all  use  of  violence  agimst  themselves',  who  do 
not  hesitate  to  use  any  force,  resort  tO'  any  violence  in 
order  to  destroy  civil  authority  as  it  exists  to-day. 

Now,  my  proposition  is  this :  That  the  sort  of  anarchy 
which  not  only  denies  the  authority  of  the  bad  govern- 
iment  which  -we  have,  but  denies  the  right  of  any  form  of 
govern'ment  to  exist,  no  matter  how  speedily  it  may  put 
into  the  background  and  retire  the  ofificer  whO'  uses 
violence  for  the  iman  who  comes  not  as  a  repressive  force 
but  as  a  builder,  I  say  in  regard  to  that  form  of  anarchy 
that  it  is  absurd,  impossible;  as  a  guide  to  conduct  for  a 
citizen  it  is  wortliles's  or  it  is  criminal,  not  against  the  old 
for>ms  alone  which  ought  to  perish,  but  against  the  new 
which  oug^ht  to  be,  as  well.  This  anarchy  the  old  forms 
can  strangle.  But  the  new  forms,  so  far  as  this  sort  of 
anarchy  can  obtain  any  following,  to  that  very  extent  fhe 
new  forms  are  themselves  made  impossible. 

Anarchy  means  no  head,  no  center,  no  authority.  If 
you  want  a  real  good  illustration  of  what  anarchy  vvonld 
be  where  it  is  not,  look  around  you  and  notice  what  it  is 


THE     FOLLY     AND     CRIME     OF     ANARCHY.  79 

wh'ore  it  already  exists.  It  is  in  full  force  on  nearly  every 
side  of  us.  I  want  you  to  sit  still  and  think  'how  much 
anarchy  there  is  in  Chicago  now,  lack  of  head,  lack  of 
management,  lack  of  authority,  lack  of  any  fixed,  definite, 
organized  w-ay  of  doing  anything.  We  say  we  want  to 
protect  our  lives  and  our  property.  We  create  a  company 
of  ofiicers  and  turn  that  duty  over  to  t'hem.  We  want  as 
well  to  provide  for  the  means  of  livelihood,  to  open  the 
way  of  possible  employment  to  every  toiler.  Why  not 
organize  that  field  also?  The  m.'cn  who  insist  upon  or- 
ganizing the  police  force  to  break  our  heads  if  we  grow 
disorderly,  refuse  to  organize  industry  tibat  by  our  toil  we 
may  create  the  bread  which  shall  feed  tjhe  hungry  and 
make  disorder  practically  an  impossibility.  We  contend 
for  the  existence  of  the  police  force  and  say  that  is  govern- 
ment, and  to  strike  at  tihe  police  force,  we  say  that  is 
anarchy.  I  affirm  that  to  contend  for  the  present  disor- 
ganized, disorderly,  headless,  planless  system,  or  rather, 
lack  of  system,  which  prevails  in  the  industry  and  com- 
merce of" America  to-day  is  anarchy  also;  and  while  the 
man  who  strikes  at  the  police  force  is  called  an  anarchist, 
while  the  man  who  objects  to  the  organization  of  the 
forces  that  shall  protect  the  life  and  property  of  the  com- 
munity is  called  an  anarchist,  I  say  the  man  who  insists 
on  the  perpetuation  of  a  headless,  planless  scheme,  or 
lack  of  scheme,  for  producing  the  things  the  people  need 
in  order  to  provide  for  t]heir  livelihood,  are  industrial  and 
commercial  anarchists  from  top  to  bottom. 

There  is  no  plan.  Where  is  there  a  plan  ?  Last  year  we 
planted  a  good  many  potatoes,  we  sold  them  in  Chicago, 
as  I  have  told  you  before,  for  thirteen  cents  a  bushel. 
Why  did  we  not  act  wath  wisdom?  Why  plant  so  many 
potatoes  when  we  knew  they  were  going  to  be  so  cheap? 
Ah !  but  we  did  not  know.  Will  you  introduce  me  to  the 
*nian  who  will  tell  me  now  w^hat  we  shall  be  able  to  sell  our 
potatoes  for  this  year?  The  boys  are  raising  some  pota- 
toes again.  What  price  will  they  get  for  them?  I  do  not 
know.  Can  you  tell  me  who  does  know,  can  you  tell  me 
of  anybody  who  has  the  information  that  will  make  it 
reasonably    possible  for    them  to  make  a  fairly  correct 


80  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

guess?  The  reports  'Come  in;  yes,  but  after  we  have 
planted  them.  And  after  we  have  not  plan^ted  them  and 
the  reports  are  in  it  is  too  late  to  plant  tihem.  Where  is 
the  system  that  will  enatble  the  toilers  to  know  before 
planting  how  much  there  will  be  a  demand  for?  This  year 
they  plant  potatoes  and  the  price  is  \vay  down,  and  they 
isay,  "We  made  a  bad  bargain  tliis  year;  next  year  we  will 
know  better,  we  will  plant  no  potatoes,"  and  the  price  is 
'way  up,  but  the  supply  is  'way  do-w.n,  and  not  only  in  t-he 
matter  of  potatoes,  but  of  every  other  article,  the  price  of 
the  commodity  a-nd  the  volume  of  the  -supply  are  playing 
hide  and  seek  with  each  other,  up  aod  down  the  black- 
board. The  game  is  not  so  bad,  but  while  the  sport  goes 
on  people  go  hungry,  and  hunger  is  uncomxfortable. 

This  is  agricultural  anarchy,  and  there  are  lots  of  fel- 
lows who  have  not  got  enough  of  it,  and  they  waM  some 
-more  of  it.  I  do  not  want  it  any  more.  But  tihere  are 
•men  who  want  t'his  aearchy  of  the  potato  patch  extended 
to 'the  police  force.  I  wish  we  could  have  some  way,  some- 
how, somewhere,  by  which,  w'hen  a  man  goes  intO'  the 
field  to  work  in  the  spring,  'he  may  know  that  if  he  works 
(he  shall  be  fed,  and  if  he  doesn't,  then  shall  he  starve. 
What  is  true  with  regard  to  these  crops  is  true  with  regard 
to  everything  else.  Take  any  system  of  business.  Do  you 
know  there  are  some  steam  laundries — I  am  not  attack-' 
ing  anybody  on  the  matter  of  their  wash  bills;  I  am  simply 
saying  there  is  in  the  city  of  Chicago  to-day  no  plan,  no 
arrangemiemts  by  which  everybody  can  be  clean.  I  no- 
ticed a  man  on  the  street  just  a  day  or  two  ago  who  was 
inot.  Wihat  is  true  with  regard  to  the  laundries  is  true 
with  regard  to  the  bakeries,  with  regard  to  the  tailor 
shops,  with  regard  to  the  shoe  shops.  All  the  business, 
the  industry  of  th€  city  of  Chicago  is  simply  disarranged. 
Take  t)he  matter  of  machinery.  Here  in  this  coimtry 
to-day  it  has  come  to  be  a  time  when  every  invention  is  a 
-misfortune  for  some  one.  I  knto\v  a  man  who  never 
worked  at  a  machine  in  his  life,  where  several  men  were 
at  work,  that  he  could  not  improve  it  so  that  it  wo-uld 
displace  some  one.  He  is  now  out  of  a  job,  and  he  said  to 
m'ethat  whenever -he 'worked  on  a  machine  again,  no  mat- 


THE     FOLLY    AND     CRIME     OF     ANARCHY.  8l 

ter  how  -many  places  where  'he  saw  an  opportunity  to  put 
the  man  off  and  let  the  madliin-e  do  it  itself,  he  'was  going 
to  keep  the  old  nmohine.  What  did  tihat  mean?  It  meant 
to  tie  up  liis  brains,  because  of  the  senseless  commercial 
anarchistic  condition  in  which  the  industry  of  this  coun- 
try finds  itself  in  connection  witih  the  matter  of  the  use  of 
.machinery.  Society  is  disorganized  and  disjointed.  It 
does  not  exist  under  any  plan.  The  men  who  work  on  t(he 
farm,  in  tlie  sihops,  in  the  stores,  down  in  t(he  mines,  are 
working  blindly.  Busi-ness  is  not  inaugurated  ior  tilie 
purpose  of  making  people  comfortable.  Coal  mines  are 
■not  discovered  for  the  purpose  of  making  fire.  Coal  com- 
panies are  organized  for  die  purpose  of  getting  dividends, 
and  they  discontinue  the  production  of  fuel  the  hour  that 
profits  discontinue,  and  -when  the  hard-handed  company 
of  a  thousand  men  over  here  in  the  midst  of  seventy 
millions  of  people  are  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the 
closing  mines,  are  they  not  cold?  Yes.  Is  there  fuel? 
Yes.  But  t5hey  must  starve  and  freeze,  although  they  live 
in  cottages  built  on  the  ground  which  has  coal  under  it. 
What  is  the  reason  why  these  miners  must  freeze?  In- 
dustrial anarchy.  No  plan,  no  system,  no  organization. 
Anarchy,  that  is  what  it  is.  These  operators  and  these 
miners  are  commercial  and  industrial  anarchists.  I  am 
opposed  to  that  kind  of  anarchy.  But  fhere  are  men  who 
want  more  of  it.  Some  men  want  it  extended  into  new 
fields.  They  want  the  courts  thrown  down.  Others  want 
lit  continued  in  the  fields  wihere  it  already  is,  and  they  want 
the  courts  corrupt.  They  are  both  the  enemies  of  society. 
I  want  organization  perfected  where  it  does  exist,  and  ex- 
tended to  all  our  common  interests  where  it  does  not  exist. 
I  <want  to  put  a  civic  head  on  the  mining  industry.  I  am 
no  anarchist.  I  want  no  more  of  this  confusion  and  dis- 
order and  distress — this  heedless  and  h^cadless  industry. 
The  condition  of  our  business  in  this  country  to-day  is 
simply  like  the  plan  of  the  little  child  who  went  out  to  play 
in  the  grass  and  saw  a  snake,  and  went  into  th^'  house, 
crying,  "Oh,  mamma,  t'here  is  a  tail  out  in  the  grass  run- 
ning all  around,  and  it  isn't  fastened  on  to  anything  at  all." 
The  industry  and  commerce  of  America  is  a  tail  let  loose 


82  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

without  a  head.  I  want  to  put  a  head  on  this  industrial 
system  and  this  commercial  system  and  bring  it  into  line, 
and  have  business  organized  for  the  purpose  of  employ- 
ing labor,  of  taking  care  of  the  things  that  need  to  be 
cared  for,  and  stop  the  waste  and  ruin. 

There  are  S'till  other  anarchists,  men  who  in  connection 
with  the  disordered  condition  of  society  take  advantage  of 
the  fact  thait  there  is  no  organization  by  authority  of  all 
the  people  for  the  benefit  of  all  to  create  organizations 
made  up  of  a  part  of  the  people  for  the  express  purpose  of 
robbing  tihe  balance  of  the  people.  There  is  the  sugar 
trust,  and  tihe  tobacco  trust,  and  the  steel  trust,  and  tlie 
flour  trust,  and  the  coffee  trust,  and  the  rubber  trust,  and 
all  the  balance  of  the  trusts,  until  we  find  that  these  co-m- 
binations  of  a  portion  of  the' people  have  practically  taken 
possession  of  tihe  whole  field  of  industry  and  commerce, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  opening  up  more  shops,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  shutting  down  a  portion  of  the  sihops  already 
open.  Not  for  the  purpose  of  making  some  more  rubber 
goods,  but  for  the  purpose  of  making  less.  Not  for  the 
purpose  of  producing  more  flour,  but  compelling  us  to 
give  more  of  our  labor  for  less  ffour.  These  trust  organi- 
zations,- 'made  up  of  the  few  to  rob  the  many,  usurp  the 
proper  functions  of  government  to  rob  the  very  persons 
for  whose  protection  governments  are  instituted,  and  are 
thus  m'ore  infamous  than  tihe  common  'horse  thief  and 
villain.  I  am  not  talking  at  random.  It  is  not  true  that 
these  men  do  these  things  only  with  the  aut'hority  of  tihe 
law.  They  do  them  in  contempt  of  the  law.  It  is  not  true 
that  'they  do  them  only  with  'high-salaried  attorneys. 
They  use  their  'attorneys,  Hessians  in  this  industrial  war- 
fare, when  they  can  use  them,  and  .they  use  a  rifle  when 
they  cannot  use  the  attorneys  and  can  use  a  rifle. 

Let  me  give  you  one  or  two  instances  in  this  countr}^ 
of  men  who  in  my  judgment  are  tihe  most  infamous  an- 
ardhists  of  t'hem  all.  Do  you  know  Mr.  Mark  Hanna? 
You  -have  -heard  of  him.  He  is  a  United  States  Senator, 
♦he  is  President  of  tihe  United  States,  he  is  tihe  Republican 
party;  Mark  Hanna  set  all  the  seven-by-nine  fellows  in 
the  United  States,  and  others  who  are  built  on  a  larger 


THE  FOLLY  AND  CRIME  OF  ANARCHY.        83 

mould,  but  sold  their  voices  for  a  consideration ;  Mark 
Hanna  set  all  the  purchasable  voices  and  all  tdie  purchasa- 
ble newspapers  in  this  country  to  callino^  the  frif  nds  of 
the  free  coinage  of  silver  last  fall  anarchists.  Mr.  Hanna, 
wait  a  minute,  you  are  the  defendier  of  law  and  order;  you 
believe  in  the  courts.  Mr.  Hanna,  you  believe  in  the 
adniiinistration  of  justice  by  fixed  and  recognized  au- 
thority. ]\lark  Hanna,  when  you  were  in  trouble  witih  the 
Seamen's  Union  of  the  Northern  Lakes  did  you  take  your 
cas'C  into  court?  No.  Did  you  take  your  case  before  any 
public  tribunal?  No..  Did  you  plead  your  case  at  any 
place  where  men  on  both  sides  could  be  heard  in  the  pres- 
ence of  their  peers?  No.  What  did  you  do?  You  organ- 
ized a  company  of  ruffians.  You  took  a  company  of  cold- 
blooded murderers  anid  stood  them  down  on  the  docks  in 
Cleveland  to  drive  by  force,  in  private  war,  the  Seamen's 
Union  from  the  docks.  I  went  over  to  Bricklayers'  Hall 
in  this  city  some  years  ago  on  an  invitation  to  speak.  I 
had  spoken  as  well  as  I  could  in  behalf  of  the  Seamen's 
Union,  when  another  man  w"ho  was  to  follow  me  came 
from  the  audience  and  said  to  them  to  turn  around  and 
look  up  into  the  gallery.  They  turned  around;  then  he 
said  to  some  men  who  were  up  in  the  gallery  to  stand.  He 
told  them  to  be  seated  again.  Up  in  the  gallery  there  were 
thirty  or  forty  men  with  broken  jaws,  w^th  bruised  faces, 
with  broken  arm>s  in  slings.  Where  was  that  company  of 
men  from  in  the  gallery?  From  the  Chicago  River  front. 
Wihat  wrong  had  they  been  doing?  Not  any.  In  what 
court  had  they  been  tried?  Not  any.  By  Avhose  authority 
had  they  been  thus  punished?  The  Hanna  combination 
against  the  Seamen's  Union  'had  at  last  reached  Chicago. 
To  take  some  criminal  into  court?  No.  To  try  some  case 
under  the  law?  No.  To  punis/h  these  men  for  some 
wrong  recognized  under  law  and  condemned  by  its  au- 
thority? No.  But  to  go  on  the  docks  in  Chicago  as  Mark 
Hanna  had  sent  them  to  the  docks  in  Cleveland,  by  force 
in  private  war,  to  drive  these  men  off  the  earth  with  clubs, 
to  throw  them  into  the  Chicago  River  if  they  stayed  in 
their  places,  and  to  break  their  heads  if  they  dared  resist. 
Who  authorized  Mark  Hanna  to  wage  his  private  war? 


84  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

No  one.  He  did  k  of  his  own  notion,  contrary  to  law,  and 
in  contempt  of  law.  That  is  the  plan  of  t'he  anarchist. 
Hanna  is  an  anarchist.  And  yet  the  men  who  talked  aS' 
Hanna  told  t'hcm  to  talk  and  wrote  as  Hanna  told  tihem  to 
write,  and  whether  they  talked  or  wrote,  lied  as  Hari'na  told 
them  to  lie,  say  that  I  am  an  anarchist.  They  say  that  I 
am  stirring  up  discontent.  Botih  statements  are  untrue.  I 
believe  in  the  law.  I  am  unwilling  that  either  Mark 
Hanna,  or  Herr  Most,  sho/uld  hold  it  in  contempt.  I  insist 
that  neither  shall  be  permitted  to  make  public  authority 
contemptable.  I  am  not  stirring  up  discontent.  I  am 
speaking  almost  exclusively  in  Chicago.  Since  tihe  com- 
ing of  prosperity  the  ordinary  Chicago  man  hasn't  been 
able  to  get  enough  inside  of  him  to  mtake  it  possible  for 
anyone  to  stir  him  up. 

John  D.  Rockefeller  is  the  builder  of  a  great  uni- 
versity, and  is  as  big  an  anarchist  as  Mark  Hanna.  I  used 
to  live  down  in  Ohio.  I  spent  some  time  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Western  New  York,  and  happen  to  be  acquainted 
Avitih  some  of  the  facts  personally  concerning  Standard 
Oil.  When  Mr.  Rockefeller  went  into  business  there 
w'ere  eleven  oil  companies  in  existence.  Now  there  is  but 
one.  What  has  become  of  the  other  ten  companies?  They 
have  joined  Mr.  Rockefeller's  company.  Under  what 
proposition  ^  Under  the  proposition  to  go  d'own  its  throat. 
How  was  all  that  brought  alDOUt?  By  negotiation?  Yes. 
No  question  about  that.  How  was  it  all  brought  about? 
By  tearing  up  each  other's  pipe  lines,  by  tearing  down 
each  other's  property,  by  destroying  each  other's  pump- 
ing stations.  The  warfare  between  the  eleven  companies 
Vv'a-s  carried  on  by  the  commitment  of  every  crime  known 
to  the  statutes.  By  every  crime  it  is  possible  for  you  to- 
name,  and  when  the  Standard  Oil  Companv  had  the  last 
man  to  fight — a  refinerv^  man  over  in  Buffalo — 'he  used 
to  be  a  member  of  a  church,  but  all  the  ehurch  members- 
joined  sides  "wit'h  the  m.en  who  blew  up  his  refinery  in  the 
night.  He  used  to  be  a  Republican,  but  all  the  Repub- 
licans in  his  neighborhood  joined  with  the  "blowing  up" 
fellows.  He  did  not  like  to  be  blown  up  that  way.  The 
last  time  I  met  him  he  was  chairman  of  the  State  con- 


THE     FOLLY     AND     CRIME     OF     ANARCHY.  85 

vention  of  the  People's  party  for  the  State  of  New  York. 
He  had  a  refinery,  so  tjhey  hired  a  man  to  blow  it  up  with 
dynamite.  Dynamite!  I've  heard  that  word  before. 
Let's  see.  Dynamite,  Rockefeller,  Chicafj^o  University 
bonds — I've  heard  thorn  all!  The  facts  were  beyond  dis- 
pute. Rockefeller's  hired  man  was  conv^icted  and  sen- 
tenced and  out  on  bail,  and  in  the  meantime  the  ma-n  who 
had  been  sentenced  bo  the  penitentiary  and  was  out  en 
bail  went  down  to  New  York  and  niarri-ed  a  girl  that  bc- 
longe^d  to  the.  Four  Hundred,  and  the  Four  Hundred  wer^e 
all  there  at  the  wedding — ^it  was  respectable,  for  tilicy 
were  all  there;  he  was  entirely  on  the  inside.  If  it  had 
been  a  labor  agitator  he  -would  have  served  out  a  part  of 
his  sentence  before  the  trial  came  on.  If  it  had  been  a 
labor  agitator  he  would  have  been  sent  to  jail  without 
any  trial.  If  it  had  been  a  man  who  stood  for  the  people 
he  would  have  served  'his  time  right  away,  but  you  know 
'he  was  not;  ihe  was  a  gentleman.  He  was  not  on  t'lie 
side  of  the  people;  he  was  on  the  -side  of  the  oil.  He  was 
not  on  the  side  of  the  people  who  behaved  themselves;  he 
was  on  the  side  of  the  people  in  the  blowing-up  business. 
He  was  not  a  man  experimenting  wi-th  dynamit'e  to  find 
out  what  it  would  do  and  got  stretahed  by  the  neck  be- 
cause it  accidentally  went  off ;  he  was  not  a  man  who  went 
out  on  the  streets  in  anger  and  was  experimenting  with 
a  gun  that  exploded  in  the  wrong  place.  He  was  a  wealthy 
man,  in  partnership  with  John  D.  Rockefeller,  and  was 
ckting  a  part  of  the  work  that  realized  the  imoney  that 
made  the  founding  of  the  Chicago  University  a  possibility. 
He  was  that  sort  of  a  respectable  rascal.  They  would 
not  call  him  a  swindler.  They  would  not  dog  his  tracks. 
He  could  not  be  guilty  of  a-ny  crimes;  he  was  a  nice  fellow. 
He  was  going  to  marry  one  of  the  girls  of  tlie  Four  Hun- 
dred; there  was  going  to  be  a  wedding,  and  they  had  it, 
with  a  penitentiary  sentence  hanging  over  his  head.  He 
and  -his  bride  went  to  Europe  and  they  held  up  the  court 
and  tjhey  ihcld  up  the  sentence  until  he  and  his  bride  got 
back  from  Europe,  and  by  that  time  the  judge  who  was  in 
of^ce  had  becm  succeeded  by  a  new  judge  who  knew 
John  D.  Rockefeller,  "and  knew  not  Joseph,"  and  tihe  new 


86  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

judge,  who  had  been  elected  in  tthe  district  where  the 
wrong  had  been  done,  opened  the  case  over  again,  and  the 
fellow  did  .not  go  to  the  penitentiary. 

Question  from  audience :    ''Was  tihat  Yerkes ?" 

Answer:    "No,  Yerkes  went." 

John  D.  Rockefeller,  a  partner  in  every  crime,  a 
s'harer  in  every  robbery  that  has  marked  the  career  of 
the  Standard  Oil  Company,  is  still  a  Sunday  school 
teacher,  and  instructs  the  boys  on^  the  pat'h  tdiat  leads  to 
ce-rtain  prosperity  along  the  pathway  of  perfect  respect- 
ability. John  D.  Rockefeller  claimts  to  stand  for  peace 
and  order  and  good  government.  All  the  contempt  that 
is  in  that  word  anardhist,  as  Rockefeller  would  use  it,  all 
the  bitterness  that  Avas  ever  connected  w^itih  it,  is  all  too 
tame  and  insipid  to  apply  it  to  John  D.  Rockefeller  himself. 
Why  try  to  call  him  names?  I  only  know  the  English 
language,  and  tihere  are  not  any  words  in  the  English 
language  that  can  do  the  situation  justice.  We  may  as 
well  stop.  Joihn  D.  Rockefeller,  pretending  to  be  a  friend 
of  society,  is  its  robber.  Pretending  to  talk  for  tihe 
authority  of  the  courts,  he  corrupts  the  courts.  Pretend- 
ing to  be  the  defender  of  the  authority  of  civil  society,  he  is 
'himself  a  gathering,  festering,  fearful  force  in  the  midst  of 
society,  misusing  its  authority  for  more  purposes  than  any 
other  man  in  the  United  States  of  America  to-day,  outside 
of  Mark  Hanna  himself.  But  after  all,  both  Hanna  and 
Rockefeller  are  anardhists  only  because  of  tIhe  anarcliy 
wihich  lies  around  them.  They  are  its  products,  not  its 
producers.  I  want  to  extend  the  civic  organization  to 
include  the  mines  and  the  lakes  and  the  oil  fields.  Hanna 
and  Rockefeller  may  have  some  reason  for  wisihing  to 
vvithstand  sudh  an  extension  of  organization.  Tlhey  rob 
because  of  the  present  anarchy.  But  why  should  you 
defend  this  industrial  anardhy  by  w^hich  you  rob  not,  but 
by  which  you  are  robbed? 

We  might  give  more  and  more  of  these  illustrations.  I 
say  that  sudh  anarchy  is  foolish ;  it  can  bring  no^  real  joy 
to  these  men.  They  cannot  enjoy  their  wealth.  They 
cannot  take  advantage  of  the  millions  that  are  coming  to 
them.     Oh,  it  is  cri-minal;  it  is  manufacturing  disorder 


THE     FOLLY     AND     CRIME     OF  ANARCHY.  87 

and  discontent  tihat  now  disgraces  t^he  American  flag  and 
may  disrupt  Am-erican  society. 

But  there  is  another  company  of  men,  not  a  large  one, 
and  that  other  company  of  men  are  seeking  not  tlieir  own. 
I  believe  they  are  brave  and  s-trong  men,  many  oi  t'hem, 
who  believe  that  t'he  only  thing  that  can  be  done  that  will 
make  society  any  better  is  to  destroy  its  government. 
That  we  'have  gone  beyond  the  possibility  of  building 
new  imstitutions  out  of  the  old  ones,  and  that  the  old  ones 
have  become  helpless  and  hopeless.  And  they  come  and 
9ta.nd  on  the  platform,  preaching  a  doctrine  of  peace  that 
will  be  brought  about  only  through  disorder. 

My  brothers !  Talk  about  striking,  and  striking  back, 
and  striking  hard!  Our  oppressors  have  all  the  gatling 
guns,  and  they  have  the  end  of  the  gatling  gun  that  will 
leave  them  in  safety  while  they  mow  us  down.  Talk  about 
confusion  and  disorder  as  the  way  out!  Suppose  con- 
fusion comes,  and  disorder  reigns.  Suppose  you  com- 
mence the  destruction  of  the  great  buildings  in  the  city 
of  Chicago  to-night,  suppose  it  starts  at  midnight,  and 
in  the  morning  every  tall  building  is  ruined!  Suppose 
that  every  millionaire  in  the  city  is  down  in  the  bottom 
of  the  lake ;  suppose  telegraphic  and  railway  connections 
have  been  cut  off.  It  is  hard  to  take  possession,  but  sup- 
pose the  mob  is  in  possession!  Tell  me  what  possible 
advantage  can  com.e.  Tell  me  in  what  possible  way,  we 
shall  be'better  off  then  than  now.  Where  is  the  voice  of 
any  man  who  may  then  speak  loud  eno>ugh  to  be  heard, 
plain  enough  to  be  understood,  strongly  enough  to  find 
a  following  here  in  the  city  of  Chicago?  Oh,  how  dif- 
ficult it  is  to  get  a  dozen  men  together  in  the  city  of 
Chicago  and  organize  them  for  doing  anvthing  to  make 
this  wretched  cit>'  better  than  it  is!  How  hard  it  is  to 
gather  any  company  of  men  or  women  except  they  gather 
to  dispute.  But,  my  brothers,  wait.  We  can  talk  to  each 
other  a  little  bit  now.  We  can  explain  somehow  and  to 
some  extent  the  good  we  desire  and  the  better  things  we 
plead  for,  but  let  these  buildings  come  down- in  ruins,  let 
the  torch  go  out  to  set  the  wooden  buildings  afire,  let 
disorder  run  riot  for  one  hour  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  and 


88  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

where  is  tibe  man  in  Chicago  that  can  find  anybody  to 
listen  to  him  then?  There  is  no  company  of  men  in 
Chicago  who  can  then  organize  any  co'mpany  of  men 
except  for  mutual  destruction.  Do  not  flatter  yourselves 
that  in  that  hour  the  men  who  have  robbed  you  will  suffer 
the  stroke  of  your  fury.  You  will  merely  smite  each 
other.  My  brothers,  there  is  but  one  way  to  save  the  old 
flag;  there  is  but  one  way  by  which  peace  and  order  and 
social  life  can  be  preserved  in  Chicago  and  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  world  around  us.  The  men  who  propose 
to  rob  society  have  possession  of  the  gatling  guns,  and  you 
who  talk  of  disorder,  eitiher  talk  as  the  foolish  advocates 
of  an  impossible  program  or  as  the  paid  attorneys  of 
those  who  have  robbed  us  already  and  propose  to  turn' 
us  loose  in  m-utual  butchery  because  we  ask  for  justice. 
I  have  declined  to  have  any  share  with  any  business  move- 
'ment  in  this  country  that  proposes  to  rob  through  the 
name  of  profits.  I  have  refused  to  enter  into  any  organi- 
zation which  proposes  to  perpetuate  for  one  hour  longer 
the  infamies  and  the  -wrongs  of  the  outwoi'n  competitive 
wage  system  of  the  past.  I  stand  here  this  afternoon  and 
say  that  the  old  program  is  broken  down,  and  that  the 
old  civilization  is  powerless  to  heal  itself  frorh  the  measure- 
less disorders  under  which  it  suffers;  but  I  come  and  beg 
of  you  to  turn  your  attention,  not  In  the  direction  of  tear- 
ing down  tihe  old  that  is  and  oug'ht  not  to  be,  but  get 
together  and  understand  each  other,  standing  sihoulder  to^ 
s'houlder,  and,  touching  elbows,  build  t'he  new  order 
which  ought  to  be.  I  spoke  these  words  recently  to  a  man 
who  was  threatening  disorder  and  he  answered,  and  in  the 
fury  of  his  'hatred,  he  answered :  '"'We  don't  care  for  the 
new;  the  old  must  be  destroyed;  by  force  we  cam  have 
possession,  and  we  must  have  it  now.  We  want  control, 
-and  we  want  it  -now."  And  I  answered,  if  between,  the 
men  who  control  to-day  and  the  men  v/ho  would  seek 
control  by  violence,  if  I  m^ust  submit  to  one  or  the  other, 
if  I  m«ust  be  the  victim  of  the  deliberate  greed  of  the  one 
or  of  the  deliberate  mialice  of  the  other,  I  would  rather 
be  ruled  by  an  anarchist  like  Mark  Hanne  than'  by  an 
anarc'hist  like  Herr  Most.    But  T  am  opposed  tO'  alltihat 


THE     FOLLY     AND     CRlML     i)l'      a.naklh^..  89 

company  of  men.  I  am  opposed  to  the  robber}'  which 
•makes  us  helpless,  and  to  leadership,  sincere  or  corrupt 
alike,  I  am  opposed  do  I'he  leadership  which  is  moved 
more  by  its  hatred  for  the  wrong  wiliich  is  than  by  its  love 
for  the  good  whidi  ought  to  be.  What  is  needed  is  not 
a  movement  to  make  society  more  headless  than  it  is.  It 
should  be  for  an  organization,  a  better  organization  and 
a  better  head.  It  is  not  a  planless  life,  but  a  life  that 
plans,  and  plans  for  the  purpose  of  feeding:  and  clothing 
the  multitudes  around  us,  and  opening  a  sure  and  certain 
way  before  tihem  that  ohey  may  be  lifted  into  a  man's  life 
of  Chinking  and  loving  as  well  as  toiling  and  having.  But, 
my  brothers,  down  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle  tfliat  is 
going  on  around  us  more  than  all  we  need  the  spirit  and 
the  patience  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth,  who  lived  so 
patientlv,  who  wrought  so  earnestly,  not  that  Vhe  old 
might  be  destroyed,  but  that  the  new  might  be  true  and 
strong.  I  am  not'b^re  to  plead  for  religious  ceremonials 
or  forms,  but  I  am  here  to  say  that  a  profane  word  never 
made  societv  better,  that  hatred  never  built  any  new 
forms,  that  love  is  the  only  creator,  and  must  be  the  only 
reformer.  A  base  and  sordid  purpose,  a  hateful  heart, 
can  never  lead  the  forces  of  reform. 

Oh,  that  the  ]\Ian  of  Xazareth  might  come  once  more, 
might  come  to  live  with  us,  and  teac!h  us  how  to  live,  and 
bear,  and  suffer,  to  wait  until  the  morning  of  onr  in- 
dustrial resurrection  shall  give  us  a  new  life,  a  new  city, 
new  institutions,  new  industries,  a  new^  government,  the 
mainspring  of  which  shall  move  for  the  love  of  all.  sfhall 
ihave  no  share  in  the  wrongs  of  any. 


ST.  BENEDICT  AND  CO-OPERATION  IN  THE 
MIDDLE  AGES. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  the  destruction  of  the 
-  ncient  Roman  civilization  was  brought  about  by  a  com- 
h'ination  of  two  forces.  One  of  these  was  the  savage  life 
which  came  down  from  the  North  by  a  series  of  inva- 
i^ions ;  the  other  was  the  Christian  religion.  The  new 
religion  was  pulling  at  the  heartstrings  of  the  great 
pagan  nation  from  within  its  own  borders.  The  North- 
ern savages  broke  down  the  line  of  its  defenses  and  car- 
ried on  a  destructive  warfare  from  without.  The  one 
pressed  Roman  rule  forever  into  narrower  limits,  and 
the  other  undermined  the  authority  of  the  State  within 
those  limits  until  together  by  the  old  savagery  and  the 
new  religion  Roman  authority  was  overthrown. 

It  is  admitted  that  these  forces  were  largely  re-en- 
forced by  the  breaking  down  of  the  personal  character, 
the  extravagance  and  the  vices  of  the  wealthy  classes  of 
Rome,  and  by  the  great  poverty  of  the  masses.  But 
lying  back  of  these  was  another  force,  the  one  which  was 
really  the  cause  of  causes  which  led  to  the  overthrow. 
Roman  civilization  finally  perished,  not  because  of  the 
invasions  from  abroad,  not  directly  because  its  wealthy 
fev/  were  vicious  and  its  masses  poor,  but  the  few  were 
v/ealthy  and  the  masses  were  poor  for  some  reason,  and 
this  was  the  cause  which  produced  this  effect,  and  that 
cause  was  that  the  ancient  Roman  mines  were  exhaust- 
ed. There  was  a  great  contraction  of  the  money.  There 
was  the  consequent  centralization  of  wealth  into  the 
hands  of  a  few  people  by  forces  which  in  themselves 
were  exactly  the  same  forces  which  vv^e  see  in  operation 
in  the  city  of  Chicago  every  hour.    There  was  the  cen- 

90 


ST.     BENEDICT     AND     CO-OPERATION.  QI 

tralization  of  the  wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  few  through 
the  conditions  resulting  from  the  destruction  of  the 
mines,  where  Roman  coin  had  been  obtained.  This  cen- 
tralization of  wealth  in  a  few  hands  went  on  until  only 
eighteen  hundred  men  owned  all  the  property  of  the  civ- 
ilized world.  The  result  was  that  this  company  of  men 
with  their  measureless  possessions,  made  possible 
through  the  centralization  of  the  wealth  by  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  contracting  currency,  beca^ie  extravagant 
and  vicious  in  their  habits.  The  multitudes  of  the  people 
deprived  of  their  property,  compelled  to  become  competi- 
tors in  the  market  with  slave  labor,  fell  below  the  charac- 
ter of  a  slave.  Great  wealth  destroyed  the  character  of 
the  few.  Helpless  poverty  was  the  destroyer  of  the  mul- 
titudes. All  wealth  was  for  the  few  who  could  not  defend 
the  State.  The  defense  of  Rome  depended,  like  every 
other  land,  on  the  masses  of  her  citizens.  But  these  did 
not  own,  nor  could  they  come  to  own,  any  share  of  the 
nation's  wealth.  They  had  been  excluded  from  all  rights 
and  privileges  under  the  State.  Why  should  they,  how 
could  they,  be  persuaded  to  remain  the  defenders  of  the 
very  authority  which  itself  had  become  their  sorest  op- 
pressor? The  wealthy  few  could  not  defend  it,  the  pov- 
erty stricken  masses  would  not  defend  it.  and  the  savage 
men  from  the  north  were  given  practically  undisputed 
possession  of  the  Roman  soil,  not  because  of  the  strength 
of  the  disorganized  men  from  the  frontier,  but  because  of 
the  collapse  of  Roman  society  through  the  collapse  of 
Roman  character,  because  of  forces  which  are  working 
exactly  the  same  sort  of  ruin  among  the  American  popu- 
lations at  this  very  hour.  Roman  authority  was  finally 
overthrown,  and  the  ancient  civilization  utterly  de- 
stroyed. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  a  larger  por- 
tion of  the  earth's  population  lived  in  cities  and  towns 
than  at  any  time  since  then  until  now.  Five  hundred 
years  afterwards  these  populations  had  been  scattered  and 
the  cities  were  broken  and  in  ruins.  The  great  palaces, 
not  built  with  wood  as  our  modern  cities,  with  streets 
that  must  be  renewed  everv  dozen  vears,  but  with  stone 


92  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

roads  built  solidly,  the  great  stone  aqueducts  that  were 
bringing  down  the  water,  and  the  great  stone  palaces  that 
stood  up  in  their  magnificence  and  their  strength,  were 
all  in  ruins.  If  Chicago  and  New  York  and  Cleveland 
and  Cincinnati  were  to  be  subjected  to  the  destructive 
forces  v/hich  for  five  hundred  years  wrought  together  to 
work  the  ruin  of  these  ancient  cities,  a  single  summer 
would  make  them  uninhabitable,  but  those  ancient  cities 
with  their  strength,  with  their  beauty,  with  their  pride, 
with  their  wealth,  with  their  learning,  with  their  archi- 
tecture, with  their  great  substantial  foundations,  through 
the  years  ceased  to  be  fit  habitations  for  man.  They  be- 
caiTre  the  centers  of  disorder,  the  scenes  of  contagion, 
and  finally  the  populations  were  crowded  back  into  the 
country  again. 

The  center  and  the  source  of  the  world's  population 
is  said  to  have  been  in  Asia.  Anyway,  the  tides  of  in- 
vading immigration  came  from  the  heart  of  Asia  direct 
into  the  east  and  north  of  Europe.  Caesar's  Commen- 
taries were  simply  his  record  of  his  relation  to  these  in- 
vasions. The  tribes  with  w^hich  he  fought  stood  in  a 
curious  position.  Back  of  them  were  the  populations 
of  Asia  pressing  over  into  Europe  to  find  a  footing  for 
themselves,  and  before  them  were  the  Roman  lines  of  de- 
fense. They  stood  in  the  position  of  invaders  as  related 
to  the  Roman  frontier.  They  were  thernselves  defend- 
ing Rome  against  other  invaders  to  the  back  of  them. 
Ten  successive  invasions  through  the  early  centuries 
after  the  overthrow  of  Roman  authority  took  possession 
of  southern  Europe.  Each  took  possession  only  to  have 
another  crowded  close  on  its  heels  to  drive  them  onward. 
During  the  first  dozen  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  ten 
times  over  that  had  taken  place.  The  cities  were  de- 
stroyed, authority  was  at  an  end,  and  even  the  military 
camps  along  with  the  rest  had  been  thrown  into  ruin. 
These  invaders,  gathered  into  little  companies,  were 
striving  with  the  remnants  of  the  populations  and  with 
each  other  in  continuous  warfare  for  the  possession  of 
tracts  of  European  territory  so  small  that  a  single  pos- 
sessor could  personally  manage  their  defense. 


ST.     BENEDICT     AND     CO-OPERATION.  93 

The  Church  had  come  to  Rome  and  taken  possession, 
but  the  Church  was  undertaking  to  carry  a  burden  great- 
er than  it  could  bear.  It  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  old 
forces  that  were  crumbling,  gathering  its  re-enforce- 
ments out  of  the  new  and  endeavoring  to  preserve  some- 
thing from  the  old. 

Under  the  old  slave  organization  of  industry  the  one 
thing  which  perhaps  was  the  matter  of  greatest  care  to 
the  toiling  slave  was  provision  for  a  decent  burial.  They 
were  driven  to  their  tasks  while  strong,  slain  without 
court  or  jury  when  offensive,  and  vvhether  dying  by  vio- 
lence or  disease  were  thrown  contemptuously  into  the 
slave's  rotting  heap  when  dead — frequently  thrown  there 
while  yet  alive.  The  slaves  had  formed  associations  to  ac- 
cumulate the  savings  of  a  lifetim.e  to  avoid  the  infamy  of  a 
slave's  burial,  to  buy  the  small  privilege  of  a  decent  burial 
when  dead.  Early  missionaries  placed  themselves  among 
these  slaves  and  made  their  burial  ceremonies  Christian 
in  form.  And  hence,  from'  those  who  were  poor  and 
helpless  there  was  a  great  company  of  men  who  had 
learned  to  trust  in  and  believe  in  and  strive  for  the 
church  that  had  been  the  agency  of  their  association, 
and  the  pov^er  that  had  made  secure  from  disgrace  the 
dead  body  of  a  slave. 

When  St.  Constantine  in  the  midst  of  a  great  crisis 
lifted  up  the  cross,  out  from  beneath  the  streets  of  Rome, 
down  from  the  slave  pens,  up  from  the  refuse  of  the 
earth,  from  those  with  no  place,  no  power,  no  recogni- 
tion in  the  world  came  the  men  that  by  their  valor  made 
the  cross  not  only  the  symbol  of  the  Church  as  it  had 
been,  but  the  symbol  of  civil  authority  as  it  was  to  be. 
But  the  men  v.ho  in  the  early  years  had  given  their 
bodies  to  be  burned  rather  than  to  abandon  their  con- 
victions, the  men  whose  mission  had  been  to  the  help- 
less, these  men  passed  away  and  new  generations  came. 
The  place  of  power  overshadowed  the  place  of  sacrifice. 
New  hands  were  bearing  the  old  symbol,  but  no  longer 
in  humiliation.  When  Roman  authority  was  about  to 
fall,  by  adopting  the  cross  she  stayed  for  a  time  the  fall 
of  her  tottering  throne.    When  Roman  authoritv  fell  the 


94  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

cross  did  not  fall.  It  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion 
of  succeeding  invasions.  The  only  power  that  could 
touch  these  savage  invaders,  that  could  make  any  ground 
sacred  or  any  life  secure,  was  that  old  Church  of  the 
early  centuries.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  Romanism  in 
other  days,  whatever  charge  may  be  laid  against  the  old 
Church  that  still  carries  the  cross,  it  was  then  the  only 
place  of  refuge  for  that  which  was  pure,  or  good,  or  hu- 
mane for  a  dozen  centuries. 

Why  be  alarmed  if  in  the  midst  of  all  this  confusion 
the  Church  became  half  pagan  and  half  Christian?  But 
in  the  same  way  that  in  the  Church  was  the  last  struggle 
for  the  salvation  of  the  old  civilization,  so  also  in  the 
Church,  half  pagan  as  it  was,  was  found  the  first 
forces  which  made  the  new  civilization  possible.  The 
State  had  been  destroyed ;  all  social  and  political  institu- 
tions were  in  confusion.  Religion  was  first  made  to 
mean  something  real  in  man's  life  and  all  other  forces  fol- 
lowed into  the  new  forms  of  the  new  era. 

The  watchwords  of  the  old  Monastic  orders  had  been 
voluntary  poverty,  obedience  and  charity.  In  the  ninth 
century  St.  Benedict  stood  in  the  midst  of  all  the  confu- 
sion of  the  wrecks  of  the  old  forms  and  of  the  dead  for- 
malities of  a  decaying  church  and  while  making  real  the 
m.eaning  of  the  old  watchwords  added  a  new  idea  to  the 
central  doctrines  of  the  Monastery.  It  was  manual  la- 
bor. He  shouted  in  the  ears  of  the  idle  worshipers — La- 
bor— Labor — IManual  Labor,  is  prayer. 

Not  that  men  should  pray  less,  but  their  prayers 
should  be  given  the  form  of  their  daily  task.  Oh'  would 
that  we  might  see  St.  Benedict  again.  Would  that  in 
these  days  of  ours,  when  great  enginery  is  organized  and 
great  shops  built,  not  for  the  purpose  of  blessing  the 
world's  life,  but  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  each 
other  in  brutal  competition  and  to  establish  the  interests 
of  the  few  to  the  destruction  of  the  masses — would  that 
some  man,  with  heart  kind  enough,  with  wisdom  broad 
enough,  with  a  voice  strong  enough,  might  stand  to-day 
in  the  midst  of  us  and  make  the  maxim  of  modern  in- 
dustry the  maxim  of  that  grand  old  monk,  that  labor, 


ST.     BENEDICT     AND     CO-OI'ERATION.  95 

honest,  clean,  manual  labor  is,  and  ought  forever  to  be, 
prayer!  The  man  who  prays  one  way  and  works  another 
is  a  house  divided  against  itself.  The  man  who  stands  in 
the  church  to  worship  God,  and  then  goes  out  on  God's 
earth  to  toil  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  home  of  God's 
children  disorderly,  unclean,  poverty  stricken  and  vile,  is 
himself  a  blasphemer,  not  a  w^orshiper,  when  he  prays, 
and  the  enemy  of  God,  and  of  all  the  children  of  God, 
when  he  toils.  I  wish  that  we  might  once  get  the  idea 
fixed  in  mind  that  the  veil  that  separated  the  Holy  Place 
from  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Congregation  in  the  ancient 
Jewish  services  has  been  torn  asunder,  and  that  in  the 
symbolism  of  the  ancient  forms  w^e  are  taught  that  all 
God's  earth  is  sacred  and  that  all  His  children  every- 
where are  divine,  and  that  He  who  came  to  us  from  a 
place  nearer  to  the  heart  of  all  things  than  any  other 
messenger  w^ho  has  ever  spoken,  said,  that  inasmuch  as 
it  is  done  unto  the  least  of  God's  children  everywhere  it  is 
being  wrought  for  Him,  and  unto  Him.  If  this  lesson 
could  be  learned  over  again,  and  besides  the  maxims 
which  the  Church  teaches  she  w^ould  only  stand  again  and 
repeat  the  maxim  of  St.  Benedict  and  teach  her  worship- 
ers that  .labor,  manual  labor,  is  prayer,  and  he  who  toils 
not  prays  not,  and  that  he  who  prays  not  toils  not,  either 
v/isely  or  well,  then  might  all  the  whole  earth  become  a 
temple  and  every  daily  task  an  act  of  worship. 

Well,  St.  Benedict  went  forty  miles  from  Rome  and 
hid  himself  away  in  a  cave.  The  legend  tells  us  he  w^as 
hidden  there  for  some  time  before  he  was  discovered. 
He  was  alone  by  himself  in  the  cave,  but  around  the 
cave  where  he  had  hidden  himself  away  from  the  vio- 
lence and  the  disorder  and  the  distress  of  the  world,  he 
covered  the  rocks  w^ith  vines,  and  built  about  his  place 
the  home  that  should  shelter  himself  and  his  associates ; 
with  the  new  idea  of  devotion  in  toil,  of  prayer  that 
should  be  labor,  and  labor  that  should  be  prayer,  came 
the  idea  of  the  new  crusade,  w'herein  the  rough  and  cruel 
forces  which  ruled  the  v/orld  should  have  no  share.  Tvro 
thousand  movements  like  his  own  sprang  into  being  be- 
fore his  generation  passed  away.     In  the  deserted  and 


96  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

forsaken  places  in  England,  in  Holland,  in  Germany,  in 
Scandinavia,  even  to  Iceland,  these  missionaries  went. 
Invasions  from  the  North  attacked  and  destroyed  the  old 
civilization,  but  the  Benedictine  Monks  were  teachers, 
were  preachers,  were  missionaries,  invaded  the  North  in 
turn  and  re-established  civilization  on  the  very  ground 
whence  its  destroyers  had  come.  They  built  the  work- 
shop, and  in  it  they  toiled.  They  built  the  temple,  and  in 
it  they  worshiped  God.  They  built  the  school-house,  and 
in  it  they  taught.  They  built  the  fireside,  and  in  it  they 
taught  the  virtues  of  humane,  clean,  honest,  civil  life. 
Around  those  centers  of  piety,  of  education,  of  toil,  of  do- 
mestic joy,  around  those  centers  of  learning,  around  those 
centers  of  industry,  gathered  the  people ;  they  ultimately 
built  the  free  cities  of  Northern  Europe.  Guizot  tells  us 
in  his  history  of  civilization  that  around  the  shops,  built 
by  these  missionaries  of  the  middle  ages,  grew  the  free 
cities,  and  in  turn  that  these  free  cities  became  the  cor- 
ner-stones of  modern  constitutional  government  in  Eu- 
rope. 

Listen  to  me  for  a  minute!  Invasion,  corruption, 
poverty, — the  idle  that  were  wealthy,  and  the  poor  that 
were  idle  because  they  could  not  help  themselves,  these 
together  had  destroyed  the  old  civilization.  Disorder 
reigned  throughout  Southern  Europe,  the  Church  ^vas 
struggling  to  find  herself,  to  assert  her  authority  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  bestow  grace  and  blessing  on  the  other. 
Then  a  company  of  men  did  what?  They  said,  ''We  will 
strive  no  longer  for  possessions  for  ourselves."  They 
took  the  deserted  and  forsaken  places  of  the  earth,  they 
clambered  up  the  mountain  side,  and  in  its  deserted 
places  they  built  their  village,  their  shop,  their  school, 
and  throughout  the  middle  ages  in  these  places  learning 
and  service  went  together.  Thirty  thousand  volumes  in 
the  University  of  Paris  at  this  day  are  there,  every  line 
of  which  was  written  in  the  handwriting  of  the  ancient 
monks  of  St.  Benedict. 

What  did  they  do?  They  preserved  agriculture,  for 
wherever  they  went  to  build  their  shop  and  school  they 
cleared  away  the  forests  and  made  them  to  blossom  with 


ST.    BENEDICT     AND     CO-OPERATION.  97 

their  productive  industry.  The  secrets  and  the  arts  of 
ancient  agricuUure  that  once  made  Rome  so  beautiful 
and  so  great  came  to  Hfe  again  to  be  preserved  through 
the  centuries  of  darkness  by  the  toil  of  the  men  who 
toiled  because  they  prayed,  and  prayed  because  they 
toiled. 

It  was  not  only  true  of  agriculture,  but  it  was  also 
true  with  regard  to  architecture.  The  men  who  first 
studied  and  taught  and  made  possible  the  buildings  of 
the  Xorth  that  we  wonder  at  now  because  of  their  beauty, 
were  Ben^edictine  monks.  How  the  men  of  America  go 
walking  round  the  ruined  fragments  of  their  work  that 
they  may  see  the  beauties  of  the  architecture  that  was 
made  possible  by  the  services  of  these  men.  Not  only 
that,  but  music,  and  poetry,  and  literature,  what  is  left 
to  us  of  the  classics,  was  wrought  out  in  the  monastery, 
and  buried  away  until  another  generation  should  come 
that  could  finally  appreciate  it.  They  founded  the  great 
universities  of  Great  Britain  and  Europe.  These  men 
who  had  forbidden  themselves  to  own  property,  who  had 
forbidden  themselves  any  personal  interests,  who  had 
even  abandoned  their  own  names  in  their  love  for  their 
race  and  in  their  devotion  to  their  new  ideal,  these  men 
built  by  their  services  and  made  possible  by  their  learn- 
ing every  great  university  of  ancient  Europe  that  has 
come  down  to  us.  They  were  the  clerks  aTnd  lawyers  of 
the  time ;  no  others  understood  the  law.  They  were  the 
physicians  of  the  time ;  no  others  understood  niedicine. 

IMore  than  that,  they  cared  for  the  poor.  There  were 
never  poor  laws  in  England  until  the  time  of  Elizabeth. 
There  were  never  poor  people  famishing  for  bread  and 
being  driven  from  one  station  to  another  until  the  an- 
cient monastery  had  been  destroved  by  Hcnrv  VHI., 
and  resulting  poverty  came  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  and 
made  the  English  Poor  Laws  neccssarv.  It  is  a  curious 
thing  that  it  should  be  so,  and  yet  it  'is  true.  Thorold 
Rogers,  the  highest  authority  now  recognized,  declares 
that  the  Golden  Age  of  the  British  working-men  was 
back  in  the  days  when  the  monastery  was  there,  and  the 


g8  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

monk  was  the  teacher,  and  frequently  the  landlord  as 
well. 

What  about  all  this?  These  are  some  of  the  services 
that  were  rendered.  Did  not  these  monasteries  fall  into 
corruption?  It  would  be  strange  if  some  of  them  did  not. 
A  modern  churchman  says  that  these  men  amassed  great 
sums  of  property,  held  it  in  the  name  of  their  brother- 
hood, administered  it  as  men  of  rank  and  power,  and 
therefore  they  were  bad.  What  modern  churchman  dares 
say  that?  Look  at  the  churches  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 
There  is  wealth  enougih  put  into  tall  buildmgs  and  into 
great  spire's  and  into  expensive  furniture  in  the  city  of 
Chicago  to  arm  and  equip  for  self-supporting  industry 
e\^ery  unemployed  man  in  the  city  of  Chicago  if  it  were 
used  for  that  purpose.  The  ancient  monk  built  his  re- 
ligious institution,  and  farm  lands  were  a  part  of  it.  'Fhe 
ancient  monk  wrote  out  the  order  of  his  religious  duties, 
and  manual  labor  was  a  part  of  it.  He  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  days  of  disorder,  with  confusion  and  chaos  and 
cruelty  reigning  all  around  him,  and  in  the  midst  of  it 
and  in  spite  of  it  all  he  built  institutions  that  blessed  the 
life  of  the  world.  The  modern  church  is  itself  a  part  of 
the  power  that  is  damning  the  generation  to  which  it  be- 
longs. I  do  not  mean  to  say  the  church  renders  no  ser- 
vice. No  man  can  have  a  greater  veneration  for  the 
church  than  I.  No  man  who  has  felt  his  way  along  the 
movements  of  the  past  feels  more  intensely  than  I  the 
indebtedness  of  civilization  to  the  Spirit  and  power  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  No  man  can  feel  more  keenly  than  I 
the  measureless  service  of  the  ancient  Nazarene,  or  the 
measureless  travesty  on  the  name  of  Christ  which  the 
ordinary  modern  church  is  enacting  from  day  to  day. 
'Oh,  the  heroism  of  the  old  church!  The  world  wel- 
comed it!  There  is  m.ore  power  and  inspiration  to  heroic 
conduct  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews  than  in  all 
the  blaspheming  literature  that  was  ever  written  in  all 
the  world  combined.  There  is  more  enthusiasm,  more 
love  for  the  human  race,  m.ore  power  to  make  society 
over  again  in  following  the  simple  story  of  St.  Paul  in  his 
relation  to  the  forces  that  were  working  around  him  than 


ST.     BENEDICT     AND     CO-OPERATION.  QQ 

in  th'e  nQmc^  and  work  of  any  modern  aut-hority  that 
scorns  Christianity  or  complains  of  the  ancient  church. 
Call  over  the  names  of  the  men  who  have  been  great  and 
strong  in  human  history,  and  they  are  men  who  have 
loved  humanity  because  tbey  have  learned  flie  lesson  in 
the  secret  of  their  life's  communion  with  their  Maker, 
and  have  been  able  to  do  the  work  that  they  did  as  toilers 
because  of  their  lives  of  prayer.  There  can  be  no  ques- 
tion about  it.  You  may  go  through  the  list,  and  the  men 
who  have  been  willing  to  give  their  own  lives  that  so- 
ciety might  not  perish  have  been  men  whose  strength 
has  been  born,  not  out  of  the  greed,  not  out  of  the  am- 
bitions, not  out  of  the  mutual  hatreds  and  suspicions  that 
curse  and  divide  society,  but  out  of  the  great  heart  of  the 
living  faith  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  has  been  in 
every  true  man,  whether  he  has  called  himself  a  church- 
man or  not,  from  the  beginning,  and  must  be  till  the  end. 
I  am  not  seeking  for  tags,  I  do  not  care  whether  you  call 
th'is  a  church,  a  club,  a  meeting  place — call  it  what  you 
are  a  mind  to.  It  is  just  as  sweet  by  one  name  as  it  is 
by  another.  I  do  not  care  whether  you  call  that  man  a 
Baptist,  or  Presbyterian,  or  T^lethodist,  or  Blockhead, 
call  him  what  you  are  a  mind  to,  that  man  who  possesses 
in  his  own  breast  the  great,  strong,  tender  heart,  that 
will  not  be  cruel,  and  is  afraid  to  be  unjust,  who  loves  the 
race  he  belongs  to  and  is  willing  to  suffer  for  its  welfare, 
that  man  is  a  modern  edition  of  the  ancient  Nazarene,  and 
in  him  is  the  life  of  his  Creator.  And  these  men,  what- 
ever they  have  borne,  whatever  services  they  have  per- 
formed, whatever  surrenders  they  have  made,  whatever 
associations  they  have  belonged  to,  whatever  misfor- 
tunes have  com.e  to  them,  these  men,  and  these  men 
alone,  have  been  the  salt  of  the  earth  that  has  preserved 
the  social  Sodom  in  the  long  story  of  human  misery  and 
strife. 

What  has  all  that  to  do  with  this  day?  Listen  to  me 
a  minute!  We  are  standing  very  near  to  a  repetition  of 
what  has  taken  place  once  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
The  Roman  republic  was  nofe'i2i  years  old  like  ours,  the 
Roman  republic  was  nine  hundred  years  old.     The  Ro- 


lOO  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

man  republic  was  finally  overthrown,  at  the  first  not  in 
form,  but  in  fact.  When  the  Caesars  elected  themselves 
to  all  the  offices  and  performed  all  the  functions  of  the 
State,  while  the  name  of  the  republic  still  went  on,  and 
while  they  bore  the  names  of  these  elective  officers,  they 
really  administered  a  despotism.  We  are  very  near  that 
thing  now.  What  is  the  use  of  going  to  Congress  as 
long  as  Reed  is  there?  What  is  the  use  of  being  a  Repub- 
lican as  long  as  Mark  Hanna  is  himself  the  whole  party? 
What  is  the  use  of  being  an  American  citizen,  when  for 
twenty-five  years  in  this  United  States  of  America  we 
have  never  had  but  one  opportunity  to  vote  for  or  against 
any  public  question  in  such  a  way  that  our  ballot  count- 
ed afterwards  for  its  settlement  one  way  or  the  other  ;  and 
that  was  last  fall.  Wliat  does  our  citizeoship  amount  to, 
anyway?  They  tell  us  that  the  time  was  in  Rom-e  w'hen 
the  offices  were  put  up  at  auction  and  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Pretty  nearly  the  same  case  in  America.  Who 
can  be  a  candidate  for  Congress  that  will  not  be  a  boodler 
first  and  a  candidate  afterwards?  Who  can  stand  in 
authority  i-n  America  to-day  under  the  flag  of  the  brave 
and  the  free  except  he  can  pay  his  way  into  place  and 
power,  not  by  buying  t»he  voters,  but  by  buying  the  m^en 
who  own  the  voters?  That  is  our  situation  here  and  noWc 
We  are  along  the  same  line  and  moving  in  the  samie  direc- 
tion. Money  made  McKinley  President,  and  money 
made  the  rulers  of  ancient  Rome,  and  when  money  made 
the  ruler  then  money  was  the  ruler,  and  when  money 
rules,  humanity  dies,  freedom  perishes  from  the  earth. 

What  are  we  going  to  do  about  this?  Oh,  re-enfran- 
chise humanity.  Make  the  voter  mean  something.  Give 
him  strength,  and  power,  and  place.  How?  I  know  one 
way.  How?  Make  all  questions  of  public  importance 
subject  to  the  approval  of  all  the  people  through  the  Ini- 
tiative and  Referendum.  The  man  in  Americawho  is 
not  willing  to  trust  the  vote  of  all  the  people  in  this  coun- 
try, is  not  fit  to  be  in  America  at  all.  The  man  in  Ameri- 
ca who  is  not  willing  to  submit  to  a  decision  of  a  majority 
vote  of  all  his  fellow-citizens  is  unworthy  to  be  a  citizen 
at  all.    In  this  land  of  ours  money  has  come  to  rule,  and 


ST.    BENEDICT      AND     CO-Or>£RATION.'   ;".'.;  "^tJI  '. 

the  money  that  rules  on  the  one  hand  suppresses  the 
free  voice  of  independent  citizenship  on  the  other  hand, 
lest  money  may  not  be  permitted  to  continue  to  have  its 
way. 

In  the  United  States  Senate  they  have  been  investi- 
gating the  sugar  trust.  No  they  have  not.  They  have 
been  playing  horse  with  seventy  millions  of  people  who 
made  them  Senators.  Mr.  Chapman  goes  to  jail  for 
thirty  days  for  refusing  to  tell  the  truth  about  using 
money  to'  buy  United  States  Senators.  For  holding  up 
the  hands  of  the  United  States  government.  He  served 
his  term,  but  he  did  not  tell.  Very  well,  then,  make  it  a 
perpetual  sentence.  Put  him  in  jail  and  keep  him  there 
until  he  rots,  or  tells  the  truth  he  knows.  Mr.  Have- 
meyer  is  tried  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  and  is  found  to  be  not 
guilty  of  the  thing  he  acknowledges  he  did.  The  sugar 
trust  of  the  United  States  of  America  went  openly  into 
Congress  and  wrote  the  laws  with  regard  to  the  tariff 
and  bounties  on  sugar,  and  turned  around  and  "held  up" 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  America  that  uses  sugar. 
Then  the  people  got  angry  about  it  and  the  Senate  ap- 
pointed a  committee.  To  do  what?  To  show  all  of  us 
that  the  United  States  Senate  is  not  in  earnest.  Oh.  for 
a  breath  from  the  lips  of  Andrew  Jackson  straight  in  the 
face  of  that  degenerate  Senate. 

What  shall  we  do?  What  has  St.  Benedict  to  do  with 
this  generation?  What  has  a  cowled  and  hooded  monk 
of  the  dead  past  to  do  with  the  living  present?  The  heart 
of  the  middle  ages  was  hard  and  cruel  beyond  measure, 
but  the  heart  of  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  as  corrupt  as  the  heart  of  the  middle  ages  was 
brutal.  Listen  to  me!  Word  came  to  me  the  other  day 
that  somebody  said  I  was  a  thief.  When,  and  how,  and 
where?  I  had  been  saying  that  business  was  robbery, 
and  notwithstanding  this  assertion  I  was  once  in  busi- 
ness myself.  I  affirm  that  while  in  business  T  played  the 
game  according  to  rule,  1)ut  the  rule  of  the  game  of  trade 
itself  is  the  rule  of  the  robber,  and  I  was  in  the  midst  of 
it.  And  so  I  answered  back,  it  is  so.  It  is  so.  There  are 
hard  things  being  said  about  me.    My  brothers,  the  worst 


1(1.2  '    .Evolutionary   politics. 

thing  about  them  all  is,  a  good  many  of  them  are  true — 
they  are  true.  But  what  about  it?  Shall  I  go  down  and 
drown  myself;  shall  I  go  hang  myself?  What  shall  I  do? 
Suppose  I  have  been  a  thief,  what  do  you  advise  a  thief 
to  do?  (A  voice,  "Reform.")  You  advise  me  to  reform? 
Well,  and  that  is  what  I  am  advising  you  to  do.  And 
now,  my  brothers,  I  never  was  so  much  in  earnest  in  all 
my  life  as  now.  I  do  advise  you  to  reform,  and  in  order 
that  my  advice  may  be  listened  to  I  have  tried  with  all  my 
heart  to  reform  myself.  Let  us  look  straight  into  each 
other's  faces,  and  before  God  and  each  other  be  honest 
now.  I  have  been  in  business,  and  people  lost  money? 
Yes,  that  is  true.  That  is  true.  I  dealt  with  other  men, 
and  they  lost  and  I  gained?  That  is  true,  again.  "You 
have  the  gall  to  stand  up  and  tell  us  that?"  Yes,  I  tell 
you  that,  and  in  anguish  I  tell  you  that  when  I  tell  you 
so  I  am  telling  you  the  truth.  But  of  the  long,  bitter, 
pitiless  way  of  mutual  strife  between  man  and  man  I 
have  had  enough  of  it,  and  I  am  done  with  it,  and  I  am 
out  of  that  gang  and  out  of  that  fight  and  out  of  that 
strife  for  all  the  days  of  my  Hfe.  My  brothers!  Listen! 
They  say  I  am  a  swindler.  Who  says  so?  Was  it  a  real 
estate  man?  What  is  the  business  of  real  estate?  Cor- 
nering God  Almighty's  earth  and  making  His  children 
pay  tribute  for  the  opportunity  of  breathing  down  on  the 
ground.  They  tell  you  I  am  a  swindler.  Who  said  so? 
Was  it  a  lawyer?  What  is  his  business?  Mr.  George 
McA.  Miller  said  in  my  presence  about  a  year  ago  that 
the  legal  profession  was  a  legalized  conspiracy  to  pro- 
tect property  in  the  hands  of  people  to  whom  it  does  not 
belong.  I  am  a  swindler.  Who  said  so?  Was  it  a  gro- 
cer? What  is  his  business?  Selling  powdered  marble 
for  flour,  sand  for  sugar,  and  ground  chicory  for  cofifee. 
I  am  a  swindler.  Who  said  so?  Was  it  a  druggist? 
.What  is  his  business?  Selling  plaster-of-paris  powders 
"  to  kill  helpless  children  in  the  name  of  medicine. 

A  friend  of  mine  who  has  an  office  over  on  Washing- 
ton street  was  formerly  a  resident  of  Cincinnati.  To  his 
home  one  evening,  while  a  resident  of  that  city,  came  a 
friend,  a  fellow-worker  in  the  church  of  which  he  was 


ST.     BENEDICT    AND     CO-Oi>ER^'rit»N.'j  ; '   \  ,  ^ '/.;0V>  ',  >' ''> 

himself  a  member.  lie  was  deeply  moved.  He  had 
come  to  ask  for  counsel.  He  said  his  business  was  put- 
ting soles  in  children's  shoes.  In  the  great  factory  where 
he  worked  his  part  in  the  process  was  putting  pasteboard 
in  the  soles  of  shoes  for  children  to  wear.  He  knew  the 
shoes  were  to  be  sold  to  protect  the  feet  of  the  thousands 
of  helpless  little  ones.  He  knew  that  the  snow  and  ice 
would  be  absorbed,  not  turned  away  by  these  pasteboard 
soles.  * 

He  knew  that  the  buyers  would  be  paying  for  pro- 
tection, but  would  be  buying  disaster.  Day  by  day  he 
wrought  through  the  hours  of  toil  preparing  ruin  for 
the  little  people,  and  each  evening  he  had  returned  to 
the  bosom  of  his  family,  to  rejoice  in  the  life  and  love 
of  his  own  children,  until  he  said  he  could  not  bear 
the  burden  of  his  share  in  so  great  a  wrong  alone  any 
longer.  It  was  the  only  thing  he  knew  how  to  do.  It 
was  his  only  opportunity  to  earn  a  liveliliood.  And  yet 
to  earn  bread  for  his  own  family  meant  premature  death 
and  disaster  for  the  families  of  others.  But  what  should 
he  do?  That  was  the  question  regarding  which  he  asked 
for  the  Christian  counsel  of  his  Christian  brother.  This 
shoemaker  was  entangled  in  a  network  of  wrong.  To 
stay  meant  continuance  in  wrong.  To  go  meant  failure 
to  provide  for  his  own  house.  This  shoemaker  is  not 
alone  in  his  difficulty.  You  are  every  one  of  you  caught  in 
the  same  snare.  Modern  trade  and  commerce  is  a  colos- 
sal crime,  and  every  beneficiary  is  a  sharer  in  the  guilt 
of  it  all. 

My  brothers,  I  stand  here  and  say  that  organized  con- 
spiracy with  crime,  that  complicity  with  blackmailing, 
that  theft  and  robbery,  that  pasteboard  in  the  soles  of 
shoes  and  shoddy  in  cloth  of  clothes  is  characteristic  of 
the  generation  I  belong  to,  and  that  you  belong  to.  What 
about  it  all?  This  about  it  all,  I  have  got  through  with 
it.  For  four  years  I  have  stood  down  on  the  sidewalk 
and  have  had  no  share  in  it.  I  have  had  my  share  in  the 
work  that  was  going  on  in  the  world.  I  am  not  afraid  to 
compare  my  record  with  that  of  any  one  of  you.  But 
compared  to  the  record  of  the  Nazarene,  held  up  to  that 


104  EVOLaxiONARY    POLITICS. 

white  light  that  is  the  only  light  that  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world,  and  in  whose  presence  alone 
can  any  man  be  really  justified,  I  am  silent  except  to 
speak  in  words  of  grief.  When  fire  and  flood  and  panic 
had  overtaken  me  and  my  associates  in  business  I  gave 
up  the  last  dollar  in  my  possession,  deeded  away  prop- 
erty and  assigned  claims  that  were  mine  to  the  sum  of 
nearly  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  benefit,  not  of  cred- 
itors, they  were  to  be  provided  for,  but  for  the  benefit  of 
associates  in  the  enterprise  which  had  been  overtaken  by 
ruin  for  no  fault  of  mine.  I  gave  up  the  last  dollar  for 
their  benefit.  I  went  down  on  the  sidewalk  to  take  my 
chances  among  the  toilers,  refusing  to  call  another  thing 
mine  own,  and  I  stand  there  to-day.  That  is  the  kind  of 
a  thief  and  a  swindler  that  I  am.  The  difference  between 
the  kind  of  thief  I  am  and  you  are  is,  that  you  are  in  the 
business  yet.  God  help  you  to  get  out  of  it,  and  to  be  free 
men  also. 

Oh,  what  can  we  do  in  this  day!  I  will  tell  you  what 
we  can  do.  There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world  when  it  was  so  easy  to  produce  food  as  now.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  it  was  so  easy  to  make  clothing, 
to  build  buildings,  as  now.  I  heard  Dr.  H.  W.  Thomas 
speak  this  morning,  and  he  said  the  watchword  of  the 
new  civilization,  the  one  sure  remedy  of  the  evils  of  to- 
day, w^as  to  be  given  us  in  one  single  word,  co-operation. 
We  can  do  that. 

Is  it  possible  for  men  to  stand  to-day  as  St.  Bene- 
dict stood  a  thousand  years  ago  and  refuse  to  have  any 
share  in  the  base  and  selfish  life  that  lies  around  them? 
I  think  we  may.  Is  it  possible  for  us  to  give  our  time  to 
toil,  and  to  study?  I  think  we  may.  Is  it  possible  for  us 
to  give  a  new  ideal  to  this  generation  so  corrupt,  as  St. 
Benedict  gave  to  the  generation  he  belonged  to,  so  cruel 
and  hardhearted?  I  think  we  miay.  The  record  I  have 
read  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  is  not  a  large  one.  St. 
Benedict's  organization  was  co-operative.  His  was  the 
work  of  a  Brotherhood  inherently,  necessarily  co-opera- 
tive in  its  character.  So  is  ours.  Our  figures  are  small. 
Our  work  is  humble.    We  are  at  the  beginning.    But  our 


ST.     BENEDICT     AND     CO-OPERATION.  IO5 

growth  is  steady.  Our  success  is  certain,  for  there  are 
men  who  do  not  want  to  rob  each  other.  There  are  men 
who  do  not  wish  to  live  by  beating  other  men.  There 
are  men  with  tender  hearts,  with  genuine  manhood,  with 
the  springs  of  the  highest  virtue  and  the  possibility  of 
the  most  splendid  heroism  within  their  grasp.  These  men 
may  once  more  stand  together,  not  seeking  their  own, 
but  seeking  their  country's  welfare,  not  striving  to  pos- 
sess for  themselves,  but  to  accomplish  deliverance  for 
those  w'ho  sit  in  darkness. 

O  Church  of  God,  swing  back  on  rusted  hinges  thy 
moss-grown  doors  once  more,  and  let  us  enter  there  to 
gain  the  consolation  and  the  strength  which  Thou  alone 
canst  give  us!  O  Master  of  our  lives,  Thou  Son  of 
God,  Thou  splendid,  matchless  Nazarene,  come  Thou 
once  more,  and  come  Thou  soon!  Oh  come,  we  plead 
for  bread,  and  give  us  the  Bread  of  Life  again!  Come 
Thou,  and  visit  us,  for  we  are  naked!  Come  Thou,  and 
feed  us,  for  we  are  hungry!  Oh,  come  again!  Thy  mis- 
sion was  to  those  of  a  broken  heart,  and  we  are  broken- 
hearted. Come  Thou,  and  lift  us  up,  for  we  are  fallen 
down!  Come  Thou,  and  make  us  Thy  Brothers  once 
again,  that  we,  too,  may  partake  of  the  Divine  Nature 
that  was  in  Thee,  and  lift  ourselves  once  more  to  the 
companionship  of  the  great  God  and  Father  of  us  all, 
in  His  tireless  struggle  for  a  new  Heaven  and  a  new 
Earth ! 


THE  WORLD'S  DEBTS,  OR  THE  OUTCOME  OF 
UNIVERSAL  BANKRUPTCY. 

The  subject  to-day  is,  The  World's  Debts,  or  the  Out- 
come of  Universal  Bankruptcy.  We  were  told  recently 
that  the  greatest  item  in  the  com^mercial  world  was  con- 
fidence, and  we  'have  laughed  at  the  statement,  and  I 
'have  repeatedly  joined  in  Che  laughter  .myself,  laughed  at 
the  claim  that  business  prosperity  depended  upon  con- 
fidence, and  insisted  that  cash  would  be  better  fhan 
confidence.  That  is  a  very  good  tihing  to  say  in  reply  to 
the  affirmation  that  confidence  in  prosperity,  without  any 
fair  basis  upon  which  to  base  that  confidence,  will  give 
us  prosperity,  and  yet  it  is  a  trutih  that  tiie  greatest  factor 
in  our  human  life  is  co^nfidence.  That  faith  which  en- 
ables one  man  to  trust  another  is  the  basis  upon  which 
we  build  society,  establish  business,  and  conduct  social 
and  commercial  enterprises.  Faith  in  man,  whatever 
may  be  said  about  the  doctrine  of  faith  in  God' — for  my 
own  part  I  cannot  understand  how  the  fullness  of  a  man's 
faith  in  'his  fellows  can  ever  be  realized  except  we  look 
beyond  the  things  we  see  and  listen  to  about  us,  to  some 
great  life,  to  some  central  thought,  to  some  throbbing 
heart  somewhere,  I  believe  it  is  everywhere,  which  we 
recognize  as  the  Creator,  the  Father,  t-he  Builder,  and  the 
Ruler  of  all  things.  But  whatever  you  may  think  about 
mian's  faith  in  God,  man's  faith  in  his  fellows  is  the  founda- 
tion of  all  personal  character,  is  the  first  step  in  the 
achievement  of  all  personal  worth.  The  man  who  does 
not  believe  in  the  value  of  his  fellows,  the  man  who  does 
not  believe  in  the  possibility  of  good  purposes,  of  good 
c'haracter,  of  high  armis,  of  earnest  and  honest  endeavor 
in  anoHher  v/ill  never  be  able  to  believe  them  pos'sible  in 

xo6 


THE  world's   Di:r.TS.  107 

himself,  or  be  able  to  command  his  own  strength  in  tilie 
effort  to  build  them.  If  we  love  our  brothers  we  have 
fulfilled  the  law,  according  to  the  old  doctrine,  and  t-he 
new.  If  we  believe  in  each  other  whom  \^'e  have  s-een, 
then-  tlhere  may  be  some  reasonable  ground  for  claiming 
that  we  really  believe  i-n  the  unseen.  But  the  who  believes 
not  in  his  fcilows,  he  who  sees  a  thief  in  every  other  man, 
who  has  no  confidence  in  the  sincerity  or  virtue  of  his 
associates,  is  unworthy  of  the  confidence  of  his  associates ; 
and  no  m^atter  how  bitterly  he  may  resent  it,  he  stands  on 
the  ragged  edge  of  the  completed  wreck  of  his  own  per- 
sonal character.  It  is  true  of  the  individual  that  only  by 
faith  in  ihe  worth  of  others  is  it  possible  for  him  to  build 
anything  worthy  into  his  own  life. 

'W'hile  that  is  true  of  individuals,  it  is  more  true  of 
society.  Social  organization  is  impossible  except  upon 
the  basis  of  mutual  confidence.  Political  institutions 
among  men  who  cannot  and  will  not  trust  each  otilier  is 
the  dream  of  a  dreamer  who  dream-ed  that  he  dreamed 
tha't  he  dreamed  that  he  dreamed,  and  had  a  nightmare 
instead  of  a  dream.  The  possibility  of  building  social  insti- 
tutions upon  'mutual  distrust  is  an  absurdity,  an  impossi- 
bility. Hatred  and  mistrust  go  together.  If  you  mistrust 
another  and  are  unwilling  to  believe  in  him,  'hatred  comes 
fast  on  the  'heels  of  suspicion,  and  mutual  hatred  instead 
of  mutual  love.  Mutual  suspicion  and  mutual  hatred  as 
the  characteristics  of  a  great  population  can  only  give  us 
the  blight,  the  misery,  the  misfortune,  the  disorder,  the 
social  ruin  which  dharacterizes  and  blackens  the  life  of  our 
race  to-day.  Until  w^e  shall  be  able  to  believe  in  each 
other,  until  some  basis  of  comfidenice  shall  be  re-estab- 
lished, until  we  shall  understand  that  that  thing  which  has" 
a  tendency  to  destroy  man's  confidence  in  his  fellow  man, 
is  an  enemy  to  society  as  well  as  a  wrong  to  the  in- 
dividual, social  advancement  and  political  reform  will  be 
alike  imposisible.  And  the  most  terrible  indictment 
againist  the  system  of  modern  trade  and  tbc  usages  of 
modern  indusitry  is  that  it  centers  each  man's  interest  in 
'himself,  and  measures  'his  man'hood  by  that  which  he 
can  get  and  possess  for  himself.    Wihile  the  fact  is  that 


I08  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

each  hu'man  life  finds  .the  fulfillment  of  its  own  highes't 
Hfe,  not  in  that  whiah  it  may  possess  for  itself,  but  in  that 
which  it  may  help  to  create  for  the  blessing  of  another. 
Shc'Wiho  cares  for  her  children  only  for  t'he  services  they 
may  render  her  is  unworthy  of  the  name  of  mobher.  He 
who  is  interested  in  his  fellows  only  because  he  can  har- 
ness them  to  his  chariot  and  use  them  for  t/he  benefit  of 
his  interests  is  unworthy  to  be  a  citizen  in  any  State. 
The  real  womanhood  finds  the  fulfillment  of  the  most 
splendid  oharacteristics  of  a  wo-man's  life  in  the  service 
s'he  renders  her  children,  not  in  the  service  she  can  com- 
■mand  from  them.  And  the  real  citizen  fulfills  the  ambition 
of  genuine  citizensihip  when  his  life  realizes,  not  returns 
from  others,  but  services  to  otihers,  thus  following  in  tfhe 
footsteps  of  those  wiho  count  all  things  but  as  a  loss  if 
they  stand  in  the  way  of  the  most  splendid  service  for  t'he 
elevation  of  the  race  we  belong  to.  Interest  in  and  devo- 
tion to  the  welfare  of  our  race,  that  is  the  test  of  real 
citizenship,  and  that  is  tihe  measoire  of  real  man'hood.  But 
the  system  whidh  seeks  to  separate  one's  interests  from 
another's  and  to  measure  one's  worth  by  his  career  in 
overcoming  others,  directly  creates  mutual  suspicion,  and 
cuts  from  under  our  feet  the  very  ground  on  which  mutual 
confidence  may  securely  rest.  Co^m/mercial  confidence 
cannot  be  restored  until  commercial  mutualis/m  shall  have 
been  established. 

What  about  tihe  debts?  A  debt  comes  into  existence 
when  one  renders  another  a  siervice  and  puts  t'he  other 
under  an  obligation  to  render  a  like  service  in  return. 
Ddbt  comes  into  existence  when  you  receive  something  of 
value  from  me  and  promise  to  return  unto  me  for  my 
use  on  somie  other  occasion  values  that  shall  correspond 
to  'the  ones  you  have  obtained  from  me.  A  man  wiio 
creates  a  debt  and  repudiates  it  is  not  only  doing  wrong 
to  the  man  from  whom  he  receives  the  service  or  the 
'thing  of  value,  but  'he  is  doing  wrong  to  all  his  fellows 
alike.  Whoever  receives  from  another  and  refuses  to 
return  is  striking  a  blow  directly  at  the  'mutual  confidence 
which  'must  bind  a  man's  life  to  the  Hfe  of  his  fellows,  if 
civil  society  is  to  remain  with  us  at  all.    Whenever  great 


THE    world's     debts.  ^^9 

oblii^^ations,   unpaid  and  unpayable,  have  been  created 
and  universal  bankruptcy  has  resulted,  the  umversal  wreck 
of  civil  society  has  followed  every  time  sucfti  a  thing  has 
occurred  in  human  history.     When  one  receives  from 
anouher  some  small  service  and  there   is  demanded  in^ 
return  a  larger  one,  when  one  receives  from  another  a 
o-iven  service  under  the  understamling  that  a  like  service 
fs  to  be  returned,  and  then  a  larger  service  is  demanded, 
it  is  simply  another  form  of  the  work  of  the  higlmayman 
and  such  a  claim  is  never  honest,  honorable,  or  just,  and 
■he  'Who  makes  it  and  the  laws  which  involve_  it  and  the 
courts  which  enforce  it  are  alike  the  enemies  of  civil 
society     The  most  serious  indictment  against  the  gold 
standard,  against  tihe  contraction  of  the  sources  of  cur- 
reiicv  through  the  gold  standard,  is  in  the  fact  that  debts 
were  created  under  one  basis  of  values,  and  then  payment 
demanded  under  another.     We  have  been  told  that  to 
ehano-e  ihe  standard  of  value  and  pay  with  a  dollar  that 
\\  as  easier  obtained  than  the  one  that  was  borrowed  is 
repudiation.     Tihe  answer  is,  that  to  loan  a  dollar  and 
dumand  in  return  a  dollar  more  valuable  t^li^m  the  one 
that  was  loaned,  is  not  only  repudiation  of  human  right, 
but  it  is  robbery  as  well. 

W'hat  are  the  obligations  with  regard  to  the  payment 
of  debts?  What  is  the  real  moral  relations  between  man 
and  man  which  makes  repudiation  a  crime?  I  think  they 
are  like  this.  We  ougiht  to  trust  each  otfher,  but  to  simply 
stand  in  the  pulpit  or^on  the  rostrum  and  beg  of  people  to 
believe  in  each  other,  and  allow  industrial  and  commercial 
institutions  to  go  on  with  their  work  of  wreckage,  to 
make  direct  warfare  on  the  only  ground  of  confidence,  is 
to  make  of  ethics  a  faree  and  of  politics  a  comedy  of  the 
most  infamous  varietv.  . 

It  is  quite  the  habit  in  discussing  right's  and  duties 
for  men  to  talk  about  their  natural  rig'hts,  as  though 
natural  rights  were  one  thing  and  real  rights  in  cm! 
societv  were  another.  It  is  quite  the  usual  thing  to  talk 
about  the  rights  a  man  would  have  on  an  island  all  alone, 
a  man  separated  from  everybody  else,  and  to  assume 
•that  there  he  would  have  a  right  to  do  ever>'thiing  he 


no  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

wiiS'hed  fco  do.  But  the  moment  another  man  put  in  his 
appearanice  each  one's  right  would  be  limited.  These 
political  philosophers  tell  us  that  in  this  way,  by  the  in- 
crease of  tihe  number  of  those  living  together  on  the  same 
soil  and  by  the  mutual  surrender  of  the  natural  rights  for 
the  sake  of  the  advantages  of  civil  society,  many  natural 
rights  have  been  surrendered  and  natural  rights  limited, 
and  that  civil  rights  have  been  created  in  their  place.  I 
contend  that  civil  society  and  civil  law  has  no  right  to 
abridge,  limit  or  require  the  surrender  of  any  natural 
rigiht  t?hat  any  human  being  ever  had  anywhere.  I  cO'U- 
tend  that  civil  society  is  organized  to  protect  men'  in  the 
exercise  of  their  natural  rights — not  to  require  tiieir  sur- 
remder.  I  contend  that  if  we  are  going  to  find  out  w<hat 
man's  natural  rights  are  we  are  to  look  for  him  in  the 
place  where  nature  put  him,  and  nature  never  put  a  man 
on  an  island  all  alone  by  himself,  w^ith  nobody  else  there. 
There  never  was  a  man  born  on  an  island  all  by  himself, 
with  nobody  else  there.  There  was  always  somebody  else 
there. 

Listen!  Th-e  first  cry  of  the  infant  in  the  helples'sness 
of  his  bab}-hood,  was  the  assertron^  of  a  right,  eternal, 
absolute,  which  no  civil  law  could  create ;  and  whatever 
civil  law  sihall  abridge  or  take  away  is  the  oppression,  not 
the  protection  of  human  life.  The  little  child  cries  out  in 
its  helplessness.  The  obligation  rests  upon  tlie  parent 
to  provide  for  'him,  not  because  a  bargain  was  made  be- 
tween the  helpless  child  and  his  parent,  not  as  a  result  of 
a  mutual  connivance,  not  as  a  result  of  constitutions  and 
laws  and  courts,  but  because  of  the  inherent,  natural, 
necessary  law  of  human  life,  that  out  of  the  loins  of  one 
generation  shall  come  the  life  of  another ;  and  that  each 
generation  sihall  fulfill  its  highest  ideals,  not  in  what  they 
shall  achieve  for  themselves,  but  in  w-hat  tdiey  shall  be- 
queath to  their  children  after  them.  In  such  a  society, 
where  rights  and  duties,  born  together  out  of  inter-de- 
pendent, necessary  human  relationships — for  we  were 
born,  not  outside  of  society,  but  inside  of  society — we  were 
born  to  be  somebody's  child,  and  between  the  parent  and 
iiis  child  were  inter-dependent  relationships,  and  out  of 


THE    world's     debts.  Ill 

those  relationships  came  naturally  and  necessarily  both 
rights  and  duties.  We  were  born  to  be  somebody's  brother, 
to'^live  in  some  sort  of  a  family,  to  be  citizens  under  some 
form  of  govermnernt,  and  the  right  to  live  in  society  and 
have  a  share  in  its  blessings,  to  enjoy  its  protection,  have 
a  voice  in  its  organization.,  carries  along  with  it  social 
obligations  as   sacred,  as    binding,  as  genuine    as  any 
doctrine  of  uhe  moral  law.    Here,  then,  is  my  proposition. 
Whatever  law  of  debts  and  die  payment  of  debts  is  to 
obtain  in  the  courts  as  a  matter  of  justice,  must  be  finally 
based,  not  upon  what  the  courts  did  yesterday,  not  upon 
'What  the  laiws  were  a  dozen  years  ago,  not  upon  what  the 
constitution   says,   not   upon   what  we   have   been   sub- 
mitting to  in  other  days;  it  m^ust  be  finally  based  on  the 
inherent  rightmess  of  ihe  law  as  tihe  expression  of  neces- 
sary "human  relationships.     Let  me  ask  you  a  question. 
Here  is  a  man;  his  name  is  Jones.    He  has  a  son.    Jones 
is  in  debt;  shall  he  be  imprisoned  for  debt?    The  old  law 
says,  ''Yes,  send  him  to  jail,  and  send  his  whole  family 
to' jail  along  with  him."     Punish  the  old  man  because 
-he  does  not  pay  -his  debts,  and  punish  all  the  boys  for 
being  born  in  such  a  family.     That  was  about  the  old 
idea.     But  we  have  changed  now.    The  man  who  would 
stand  up  and   contend  that  an   execution  oug^ht  to  lie 
against  a  young  man's  property  for  his  father's  debt  wpuld 
be  laughed  out  of  court.    The  public  debts  of  the  cities, 
of  the  States,  of  the  nations,  are  simply  a  device  by  which 
the  men  who  deal  in  national  securities  are  shifting  the 
payment  of  all  the  debts  of  all  the  old  Joneses  as  fast 
as'tlhey  die  on  to  the  sihoulders  of  the  young  Joneses  as 
fast  as  thev  are  born. 

I  contend  that  when  I  was  bom  into  the  world  there 
was  reason  for  the  world  to  be  gla'd  of  it.  T  was  glad  of  it 
mvself.  I  contend  that  every  little  prattling  boy  or  girl 
playing  in  a  dirty  back  alley  in  the  city  of  Chicago  to-day 
is  a  blessing  to  Chicago,  not  an  incumbrance.  I  contend 
tihat  each  man  and  woman  that  lives  and  breatlies  came 
into  existence,  not  by  the  connivance  of  the  courts,  not 
by  consent  of  the  jurors,  not  because  of  deeds,  or  mort- 
gages, or  bonds.     He  came  down  out  of  the  depths  of 


Zia  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS.     ' 

the  great  universe  of  which  we  are  a  part,  and  struggling 
out  into  his  own  existence  found  himself  walking  on  this 
ground  of  ours  endowed  by  the  Creator,  who  gave  him 
■his  life  wioh  his  share  of  all  the  natural  resources  of  all  the 
-earth,  and  with  his  share  of  all  the  achievements  of  all 
the  races  and  generations  that  had  gone  before,  I  came  to 
my  inheritance.  The  dead  hand  belonged  to  the  grave. 
The  defeats  and  dis-asters  of  other  days  had  no  right  to 
bind  my  life,  or  put  a  burden  on  my  back  to  carry.  The 
institutioins,  the  achievements,  the  warfares,  the  victories 
of  other  days,  whatever  they  had  built,  I  was  the  natural 
heir  to  it  all.  And  if  less  than  my  share  of  the  inventions, 
the  buildings,  the  roads,  the  machines,  the  marts  of  com- 
merce, the  institutions,  the  schools,  the  colleges,  the  art 
galleries,  the  wide  fields,  the  joint  products  of  all  the 
generations  that  have  gone  before,  if  I  have  been  given 
my  Ufe,  if  you  have  been  given  yours,  with  less  than  your 
s'hare  of  interest  in  all  these,  then  by  some  outrageous^ 
and  infamous  wrong  we  have  been  deprived  of  our  in- 
iheritance. 

Now,  I  com-e  to  this  proposition.  Time  was  once  in 
the  history  of  the  world  when  nations  went  to  war  with 
each  other.  One  nation  was  overborne  and  became  sub- 
ject to  the  other;  then  what  happened?  The  nation  that 
was  beaten  in  battle  had  a  tribute  required  from  it,  a 
sum  that  each  year  must  be  paid  to  the  con<iuering  nation ; 
and  tlhe  great  nations  that  grew  up  in  ancient  history  grew 
great  and  strong  and  wealthy  through  their  power  to 
conquer  and  compel  Uhe  payment  of  tribute.  But  to-day 
the  tribute  is  gone.  Instead  of  to-day  having  nations  go 
to  war  with  each  other  land  one  nation  compelling  the 
other  to  pay  tribute,  we  have  an  organization  of  people 
standing  between  all  nations,  and  instead  of  making  one 
nation  a  tribute  payer  to  the  other  nation  tlhey  stand  there 
and  by  holding  the  bonds  of  both  nations  make  them 
both  tribute  payers  to  themselves.  Will  anybody  tell 
me  what  nationality  the  international,  anti-nationai,  no- 
national  Rothschild  syndicate  belongs  to?  Where  is  the 
Rothgdhild  citizenship?  Where  is  the  gold  syndicate's 
home?    What  is  its  postofhce  address?    Where  is  the  gen- 


THE    world's    debts.  XI3 

eration  of  people  it  is  giving  itself  to  in  order  to  bless  and 
'help?  The  family  of  the  Rothschilds,  their  imaiiediate 
dependents  and  associates  live  to-day  the  most  wretched 
life  of  any  company  of  men  who  ever  lived.  I  do  not  envy 
them ;  1  have  no  envy  in  my  heart  or  hatred  for  them  for 
the  position  which  they  occupy.  I  only  pity  them.  I  am 
penniless.  They  are  not.  j\ly  relations  to  my  fellows  are 
genuine  and  humane.  What  of  theirs?  In  the  city  of 
Chicago  wherever  I  am  at  night  1  go  some  three  or  four 
blocks  in  almost  any  direction  and  find  a  welcome,  wit'h  an 
open  door  and  the  hospitality  of  the  house  extended.  I 
live  in  the  city  of  Chicago  like  a  country  school-teacher, 
boarding  'round  among  the  people,  and  that  is  my  only 
home.  ^ly  personal  belongings  are  at  this  very  hour  in 
half  a  dozen  places  in  Chicago.  I  am  welcome  anywhere. 
I  am  glad  of  that.  It  fills  my  heart  with  a  joy  that  is  more 
genuine,  more  real  than  any  I  ever  knew  before.  The 
Rothschild  family  live  in  great  chests  and  boxes,  iron- 
bound,  steel-hinged,  ready  for  flight  at  any  hour.  Fly 
from  whom?  Fly  wihere  to?  It  is  the  international  tribute 
collector,  not  from  one  nation  for  another,  but  from  all 
nations  alike.  I  say  the  family  of  the  Rothschilds,  I  say 
that  the  gold  syndicate  which  is  putting  rags  on  flie  backs 
of  the  masses,  which  'has  covered  the  world  witth  its  obli- 
gations, W'hic'h  is  coining  the  heart's  blood  of  the  multi- 
tude of  toilers  into  gold  coins  to  settle  their  interest  pay- 
ments, wlio  have  carried  on  in  Great  Britain  for  a  bundred 
years,  and  in  America  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  a  system 
of  plunder  infamous  and  outrageous  in  every  detail — I 
say  these  robbers  of  the  people  are  to  be  pitied  by  every 
true-hearted  man  on  the  face  of  t^he  earth.  They  stand 
down  in  the  midst  of  society.  Whom  do  they  trust?  The 
man  that  'has  something  to  mortgage.  They  stand  dowai 
in  the  midst  of  society.  \\''''hat  is  their  relation  to  the 
balan'ce  of  the  race  they  belong  to?  It  is  t'he  auctioneer's 
red  flag.  It  is  -a  standing  army.  It  is  the  policeman's 
club.  It  is  the  corruption  of  legislatures.  It  is  the  de- 
filement of  public  ofifices.  It  is  the  bribery  of  courts.  It 
is  the  robbery  of  the  masses  of  men. 

But  wait!     You  were  speaking  about  these    debts. 


114  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

These  debts  are  real  and  genuine.  They  are  promises  to 
pay.  You  said  a  little  bit  ago  that  the  man  who  obtained 
something  and  refused  its  return  was  the  enemy  of  society, 
because  >he  was  directly  warring  against  the  mutual  con- 
fidence upon  which  social  organization  must  base  itself. 
Yes,  but  these  great  national  debts  have  two  things  that 
are  true  with  regard  to  them.  One  is,  they  are  already  so 
large  that  they  cannot  ever  be  paid,  and  the  other  is,  that 
they  were  created,  not  by  giving  value  received,  but  by 
swindling  securities  out  of  the  people  against  whom  they 
are  held. 

What  are  the  chances  of  the  United  States  to  pay  its 
debts?  If  the  United  States  is  in  difficulty,  what  about 
France,  what  about  Russia,  -and  Great  Britain,  what 
about  the  States  of  Germany,  what  about  Austria-Hun- 
gary, what  about  Italy,  what  about  Portugal,  what  about 
Australia?  Our  debts  cannot  be  paid,  and  they  are  worse 
of¥  than  we  are.  The  United  States  can  never  pay  the 
public  and  private  indebtedness  that  is  now  in  existence 
in  this  country,  and  in  proof  of  what  I  say  bankruptcies 
are  more  numerous  and  more  disastrous  to-day  than  at 
any  time  since  the  summer  of  1893.  If  the  United  States 
cannot  pay,  w^hat  about  the  other  nations?  In  the  United 
States  it  is  estimated  that  the  public  debts,  the  State 
debts,  the  municipal  debts,  the  railroad  debts,  the  other 
corporation  debts,  the  farmers'  debts,  the  pawn-shop  loans, 
the  debts  that  are  in  existence  in  this  country,  public  and 
private,  are  estimated  to  run  all  the  way  from  twenty 
billions  to  as  high  as  forty  billions  or  higher.  Forty 
billions — put  it  thirty  billions.  Thirty  billions  of  dollars 
in  debt.  What  does  that  mean  in  this  country  of  ours? 
It  means  an  average  indebtedness  for  every  man,  woman 
'.and  child  in  America  of  about  five  hundred  dollars.  What 
does  that  mean  in  this  country?  That  the  first  ^^laim 
against  the  industry  of  every  family  of  five  people  in  the 
United  States  of  America  is  the  payment  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  dollars  in  interes't  each  year  on  'the  two 
thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars,  their  share  of  thd  debts, 
not  to  pay  the  debts,  but  simply  to  pay  the  interest  011  the 
debts.    There  are  families  of  five  in  the  city  of  Chicago 


THE    WORLDS     DEBTS.  II5 

who  during  the  last  three  years  have  not  earn-ed  all  told 
one  hundred  and  seventy-hvc  dollars  a  family.  But  in 
order  to  pay  the  interest,  ^simply  the  interest,  not  the  prin- 
cipal; in  order  to  pay  the  interest,  and  the  interest  alone, 
'the  average  claim  against  each  family  is  one  hundred  and 
seveoty-five  dollars.  If  we  cannot  pay  the  interest,  and 
we  cannot,  for 'we  are  defaulting  on  our  payments;  if  we 
are  defaulting  at  the  banks,  and  we  are;  if  we  cannot  put 
the  deposits  in  the  Building  and  Loan  Association,  and 
we  cannot;  we  cannot,  for  we  cannot  get  the  money;  and 
if  we  could  we  couldn't  find  the  building  and  loan  asso- 
ciations. About  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  banks.  The 
special  strength  of  the  banker  is  usually  his  very  striking 
personal  appearance.  And  the  special  embarrassment  of 
•his  patrons  is  his  even  more  striking  personal  disappear- 
ance. You  don't  deposit  any  more.  You  can't  get  any 
more  money  for  your  banker,  and  you  couldn't  find  him  if 
you  could.  Under  the  gold  standard  w^e  cannot  pay. 
What  we  cannot  do  there  is  no  moral  obligation  to  under- 
take to  do.  That  would  not  be  the  effort  of  a  moral  hero; 
it  would  be  the  work  of  a  driveling  idiot. 

My  friends,  we  were  once  practically  out  of  debt.  All 
that  we  earned  year  by  year  was  ours,  not  to  pay  on  in- 
terest or  bonds  tihat  were  given  for  other  bonds,  that  were 
given  because  w^e  could  not  help  but  give  them,  thoug'h 
we  received  nothing  practically  in  return  for  them.  If  the 
debts  of  the  world  were  not  enforced,  if  there  were  no 
bonds,  if  there  were  no  mortgages,  if  the  pow^r  of  the  dead 
past  to  mortgage  and  foreclose  on  the  living  present,  if 
that  were  taken  away  I  can  see  a  great  change  in  the  con- 
dition of  things.  But  it  is  said  that  would  be  repudiation. 
The  men  w"ho  told  us  last  fall,  with  long,  serious,  pale 
faces,  and  long,  serious,  black  coats,  and  long,  serious, 
white  neckties,  tihat  the  morality  and  religion  of  this  coun- 
try must  w^ithstand  repudiation,  stood  in  the  pulpits  while 
they  said  those  things.  Where  did  these  pulpits  come 
from?  They  are  the  product  of  the  centuries  of  the  com- 
bined aspirations  of  the  race  for  higher  things  and  the 
selfislh  intrigues  of  the  crafty-minded  striving  to  cover 
■with  respectability  the  infamy  of  their  own  careers  by 


lib  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

association  willi  the  institutions    created    by    the  lofty- 
minded  of  ot'her  days.    One  of  these  forces  traces  its  an- 
cestry to  Jesus  and  Moses  and  Abraham.     The  other  to 
Judas  Iscariot.     The  one  built  the  foundations  of  the 
'noblest  faitih.    The  other  identified  itself  with  fhe  forms  of 
religion  only  to  betray  it  for  a  consideration  in  the  hour 
of  its  trial.     Standing  in  this  pulpit  these  long-featured, 
deep-toned  defenders  of  national  honor  cry  out  against  us 
as  dishonest.    They  hurl  at  us  a  long,  hard  word,  not  au' 
English  word,   or  a  Greek  word,  or  a  Hebrew  word. 
They  use  a  word  which  belongs  to  a  language  wihicih  be- 
longed to  a  race  which,  like  themselves,  never  (had  any 
religion  except  what  they  borrowed.    They  talked  Latin; 
at  us.    They  said  we  were  repudiators.     Whence  comes 
this  charge  of  repudiation?    From  Moses,  the  law-giver, 
or  from  Judas,  the  traitor?     (A  voice:     'The  traitor.") 
Moses  cancelled  all  ordinary  debts  every  seven,  years. 
Every  fifty  years  tihe  land  and  the  slave  went  free.     We 
don't  ask  to  cancel  them  except  we  pay  them  in  money  of 
the  value  we  promised  to  pay;  but  Moses  we-nt  farther, 
and  declared  that  to  the  "end  that  there  be  no  poverty 
among  you,"  paid  or  unpaid,  cancel  them  anyway  and 
set  the  debtor  free.     ^Moses  seemed  to  have  an  idea  that 
bondage  in  debt  was  not  a  good  thing  for  the  race,  and 
he  built  a  religion  and  a  state  in  which  the  debt-bearing 
infamy  should  have  no  share.     Was    Moses    dishonest? 
Was  he  a  repudiator?    For  my  part  I  am  a  repudiator.    I 
repudiate  with  limitless  indignation  the  inference  of  these 
degenerate  sons  of  an  ancient  faith   who  stand  in  the 
modern  pulpit  to  proclaim  in  effect  that  Moses  had  no 
sense  of  national  honor,  that  the  year  of  Jubilee  was  a 
year  of  national  infamy  because  the  people  rejoiced  over 
the  cancellation  of  debts  they  could  not  pay.     In  vivid 
fancy  I  can  walk  the  streets  of  a  Jewish  village  at  the  dawn 
of  the  day  of  deliverance  in  the  glad  year  of  the  Jubilee.    I 
hear  the  glad  shout  of  those  who  were  in  bondage.  ^   I 
listen  to  the  sweet  melody  of  the  matchless  music  which 
hails  the  coming  of  the  morning  of  the  day  of  liberty.    But 
what  is  this  strange,    discordant    croaking    which  has 
stopped  the  shouting  and  silenced  the  music  in  the  midst 


THE    WORLDS     DEBTS.  1 17 

of  its  heart-breaking  gladness?  It  is  Hillis,  and  Gun- 
saulus,  and  Moody,  and  Ingersoll,  and  Breckinridge  sing- 
ing their  ahorus,  "that  t^he  religion  and  morality  of  tJic 
country  must  withstand  repudiation." 

But  Moses  is  not  the  only  authority.    Thomas  Jeffer- 
son was  our  Moses.    Tho^mas  Jefferson  said,  among  t'he 
splendid  things  he  did  say,  that  laws,  usages,  constitutions, 
could  have  no  force  over  men  longer  than  for  the  balance 
of  the  generation  that  enacted  them.    The  old  Greek  who 
■wrote  t?he  new  laws,  and  then  pledged  the  people  never 
to  change  them  until  he  should  come  back  again,  and  then 
went  and  destroyed  his  life  so  he  never  could  come  back 
again,   was   as  big  a   farce   in'  patriotism  as   perpetual, 
international  bonds  are  a  crime  in  business.    Each  genera- 
tion has  a  right  to  be  'heard  on  its  own  account.     No 
generation  has  a  right  to  bind  another,  and  no  man  has 
the  right  to  create,  or  to  respect  if  he  does  create,  an 
obligation  to  do  what  he  has  no  power  to  do.     "You 
know  you  can't,  but  you'll  be  dam^ned  if  you  don't"  is  no 
long-er  orthodox  either  in  religion  or  in  politics.    If  a  man 
makes  a  debt  and  can  pay  and  will  not,  he  is  a  fraud.    If  a 
man  contracts  a  debt  honestly  and  sincerely,  with  ability 
to  pay,  and  misfortune  overtakes  him  and  ruins  him  and 
his  interests,  so  that  bilk  that  are  held  against  him  he  can- 
not pay;  to  call  that  man  a  fraud  is  to  speak  words  as  false 
as  you  are  foolisih.     Listen!     What  we  are  striving  to 
protect  is  the  basis  of  mutual  confidence.    To  require  and 
compel  from  one  what  he  can  do  and  has  agreed  to  do 
confirms  and  strengthens  the  confidence  of  us  all  in  us  all. 
But  to  condemn  and  blame  a  person  whose  only  fault 
is  his  misfortune  is  to  confound  the  innocent    and  the 
guilty,  and  by  clamoring  for  what  cannot  possibly  be  got- 
ten, destroy  public  confidence  in  that  which  is  possible.  It 
is  permitting  the  guilty  to  play  the  roll  of  injured  inno- 
cence.    It  is  compelling  the  guiltless  to  bear  the  blame 
of  guilt.     Who  bears  the  scorn  of  public  condemnation 
among  us  ncnv?    Regardless  of  the  cause  of  the  ruin  or 
the  character  of  the  men,  the  tramps  and  the  bankrupts 
bear  fhe  shame  of  the  general  distress.     But  the  infamy 
of  American  commercialism  lies  not  at  the  door  of  the 


Il8  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

poor,  and  the  robbed,  and  the  unemployed,  and  the  help- 
less multitudes.  It  lies  at  the  door  of  the  leaders  in 
■trade  >and  the  officers  of  the  law  who  have  stripped  us  of 
•our  clothing,  and  robbed  us  of  our  bread. 

But  worse  than  all  this,  these  debts  are  not  only  so 
large  that  with  the  continuance  of  the  gold  standard  tihey 
can  never  be  paid,  but  the  means  by  which  they  'have  been 
created  were  so  wrongful  that  certainly,  if  this  last  step,  in 
the  long  journey  of  wrong-doing,  is  to  be  taken  and 
the  gold  standard  is  really  to  be  the  standard,  tlhen  they 
never  oug'ht  to  be  paid.  Here  is  something:  of  the  story: 
The  British  debt  comes  v/ith  the  Napoleonic  wars. 
The  Rothschilds  made  their  first  start  in  great  national 
debts  by  being  present  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  and 
when  the  battle  was  over  and  the  French  anny  had  been, 
destroyed  they  started  for  London.  There  were  no  cables 
then.  There  were  no  means  of  communication  then. 
There  was  a  storm  at  sea,  and  the  Rothschilds  people  got 
there  long  enough  ahead  of  the  news  to  do,  what?  Long 
enough  to  make  the  report  that  Napoleon  had  been  vic- 
torious, that  Wellington  and  his  army  had  been  de- 
stroyed, and  that  the  victorious  Frenchman  was  on  his 
way  to  the  British  possessions.  English  securities  drop- 
ped out  of  sight,  and  the  Rothschilds  and  their  company 
of  long-armed  fellows  bought  them  in  for  a  fraction  of 
their  face  value.  News  came  next  day  that  Napoleon 
had  been  overborne,  that  Wellington  was  victorious. 

Napoleon  died  at  St.  Helena.  He  never  reached  the 
seat  of  English  power.  But  England,  victorious  En- 
gland, was  vanquished  none  the  less.  Rothschilds  were 
the  victors.  Specie  payment  was  resumed  and  the  Roths- 
childs securities  made  payable  in  specie.  Silver  was  de- 
monetized in  1816  and  the  Rothschilds  securities  made 
payable  in  gold.  The  basis  of  the  English  debt  was  not 
a  service,  but  a  steal.  To  make  that  debt  sacred  is  to 
place  on  a  like  footing  the  products  of  industry  and  the 
spoil  of  theft.  Through  five  generations  the  toil  of  the 
children's  children's  great-great-grandchildren  have 
been  paying  interest  on  a  public  debt,  that  there  is  no 
intention  of  ever  permitting  them  to  pay  up  and  cancel, 


THE    world's     debts.  IXQ 

but  only  to  pay  the  interest  thereon, — on  a  debt  which 
in  the  first  place  represented  no  service  but  a  midnight 
steal  which  deserved  imprisonment  or  death,  and  not 
reward.  It  could  have  been  hardly  w^orse  for  Englishmen 
had  Napoleon  captured  Great  Britain,  if  only  the  Roths- 
childs could  have  been  sent  to  St.  Helena  and  the  sys- 
tem of  international  bonds  which  they  devised  could 
only  have  gone  there  to  perish  with  them  also. 

That  was  not  the  case  with  our  bonds.  Xo,  it  was  not! 
Our  case  was  worse.  There  was  a  time  in  this  country 
when  it  took  two  dollars  and  eighty-five  cents  of  green- 
backs to  buy  one  gold  dollar.  In  order  to  get  these  fig- 
ures easy,  suppose  we  say  it  took  three  dollars.  It  took 
three  dollars  to  buy  a  gold  dollar.  Here  is  a  circular  that 
was  found  in  the  study  of  Dr.  Spurgeon  in  London  giv- 
ing the  figures  of  a  certain  transaction  of  an  English 
syndicate  with  offices  in  Xew  York,  doing  business  on 
Wall  Street,  opposite  the  United  States  Treasury,  in  New 
York.  I  spent  something  like  a  day  and  a  half  going 
over  these  figures.  I  tried  as  well  as  I  could  to  verify 
them  as  to  their  correctness.  Whether  this  thing  took 
place  or  not  I  am  not  able  to  say ;  I  was  not  there.  The 
claim  of  this  circular  was  that  a  company  of  men  with 
English  gold,  with  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  gold,  came 
to  New  York  and  went  into  business.  What  did  they  do 
with  their  gold?  They  bought  two  million  eight  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  greenbacks. 
Put  it  three  millions.  Three  millions  of  greenbacks. 
What  did  they  do  with  the  greenbacks?  They  went  over 
to  the  treasury  department  and  bought  three  millions  of 
United  States  bonds.  What  did  they  do  with  the  bonds? 
The  law  said  that  the  interest  on  the  bonds  should  be 
payable  in  gold.  It  further  provided  that  the  interest 
should  be  paid  a  year  in  advance.  They  simply  went 
down  to  another  window  in  the  same  room  and  collected 
seven  per  cent,  interest  in  gold  back  on  the  face  of  the 
three  millions  of  bonds  which  they  bought  with  green- 
backs, but  with  one  million  of  gold.  In  other  words, 
they  collected  inside  of  five  minutes  from  the  time  they 
took  one  million  and  with  it  bought  three  millions  and  on 


120  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

it  collected  seven  per  cent.,  or  twenty-one  per  cent,  on 
the  original  million  of  gold,  paid  back  in  gold.  What 
did  they  do  with  the  gold?  They  bought  more  green- 
backs, and  then  more  bonds,  collected  more  interest  in 
gold,  bought  more  greenbacks,  and  then  more  bonds, 
collected  more  interest.  They  kept  at  that  with- 
out going  off  the  street  until  they  had,  what?  Until 
it  got  so  it  only  paid  them  five  thousand  dollars  for  going 
across  the  street  and  back.  Then  they  took  the  bonds 
that  they  had  and  started  a  lot  of  United  States  banks. 
What  could  they  do  with  the  banks?  Deposit  the  bonds. 
What  then?  Draw  ninety  per  cent,  of  their  face  back  in 
bank-notes.  What  then?  Go  down  in  the  market  and 
swap  them  for  greenbacks,  and  with  the  greenbacks  buy 
some  more  bonds,  and  keep  that  up  until  they  made  only 
five  thousand  dollars  in  a  single  transaction,  then  go 
back  and  organize  some  more  banks. 

Now,  this  circular,  which  is  claimed  to  have  been 
found  in  Mr.  Spurgeon's  office,  and  which  Mr.  Spurgeon 
stated  to  a  gentleman  had  been  left  there  to  interest  him 
in  the  business,  went  on  to  say  that  in  six  months  from 
the  time  of  starting  with  only  one  million  they  had  fifty 
millions  of  United  States  bonds,  they  had  six  millions  in 
gold,  besides  their  bank  stock  and  their  bank  money. 
But  all  I  want  to  give  you  is  the  plan  in  which  that 
transaction  was  carried  through.  Now,  the  United 
States  debt  to-day  is  built  on  that  sort  of  a  transaction. 
And  I  say  to  all  the  men  and  women  here,  when  we  are 
willing  to  pay  it  in  silver  dollars,  if  they  will  give  us  an 
opportunity  to  turn  our  unemployed  labor  to  digging 
silver  out  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  out  of  which  to  make 
the  dollars  with  which  to  pay,  while  we  would  be  willing 
to  do  that,  I  say  that  even  in  doing  that  we  are  settling 
a  transaction  that  does  not  represent  a  bona  fide  debt.  It 
represents  the  most  infam.ous  swindle  of  all  the  cen- 
turies. The  men  who  call  us  repudiators  because  we  ask 
for  the  settlement  with  gold  or  silver  either,  are  them- 
selves the  repudiators  of  all  that  is  fair  between  man  and 
man. 

I  shall  detain  you  only  a  few  minutes  longer.     Mr. 


THE    WORLDS     DEBTS.  121 

Mills,  are  you  advocating  that  the  United  States  should 
cease  paying  its  interest?  No!  Shall  we  not  pay  our 
honest  debts?  Yes,  and  more  yet.  I  am  even  in  favor  of 
paying  this  dishonest  public  debt.  I  advise  every  man' 
and  woman  here  this  afternoon  who  owes  anything  to 
give  up  collateral  and  stop  staying  awake  nights,  and  get 
a  good  night's  rest.  You  say  we  cannot  pay  our  debts. 
You. say  that  these  nations  will  not  pay  theirs.  I  say 
nothing  of  the  sort.  I  say  that  if  we  will  in  1898  send  a 
free  coinage  Congress  to  Washington  we  will  put  things 
in  this  country  into  a  shape  by  which  the  United  States 
of  America  wull  be  able  to  dig  out  of  her  own  mountains 
the  new  dollars,  and  employ  the  unemployed  labor  that 
will  pay  for  every  United  States  bond  dollar  for  dollar, 
and  that  the  shop  shall  never  shut  down  until  this  is  done. 
What  then?  Then  I  propose  that  in  the  United  States 
of  America  from  this  time  on  each  generation  shall  settle 
its  own  bills,  and  each  company  of  men  shall  pay  their 
own  debts. 

When  the  Civil  W^ar  came  on  and  we  needed  money, 
and  we  needed  men,  we  sent  out  for  the  men,  and  if  they 
did  not  come  we  sent  a  squad  of  men  after  them  with 
bayonets.  And  we  told  a  man  he  was  a  citizen  in  this 
country,  under  its  protection,  and  Uncle  Sam  was  in 
need  of  men,  and  that  whether  he  wished  to  go  or  not 
he  must  go,  and  he  went  freely  and  gladly,  or  he  went 
with  the  point  of  a  bayonet  behind  him.  But  when  we 
needed  blankets  and  clothing  and  food  for  the  men,  and 
we  needed  them  badly  to  clothe  and  feed  the  men, — 
when  we  needed  the  man  we  sent  after  him  and  com- 
pelled him  to  go, — we  sent  after  the  dollar,  and  got  down 
on  our  knees  and  begged  the  fellow  who  had  it  to  let  us 
take  it  a  few  days  and  we  would  return  it  again.  The 
dollar  was  so  sacred  that  we  could  not  have  it  until  we 
had  borrowed  it  from  somebody.  But  life  was  so  cheap 
that  we  took  it,  whether  or  no.  In  the  future.  God  grant 
that  in  the  future  the  men  of  America  will  not  only  be 
brave  enough  to  go  down  to  the  front  and  fight  the  bat- 
tles of  their  country,  but  may  they  be  wise  enough  to 
compel  the  wealth  of  the  country  to  share  side  by  side 


122  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

the  risks  that  the  manhood  of  the  country  is  compelled 
to  bear.  The  most  sacred  thing  on  this  earth  of  ours  is 
the  men  and  the  women  and  the  children  that  are  here. 
The  dollar  has  a  right  to  be  here  because  it  is  our  ser- 
vant. The  most  sacred  thing  on  earth  is  human  life,  and 
the  dollar  has  no  right  to  be  here  to  make  us  its  slave. 

What  will  be  the  outcome  of  universal  bankruptcy? 
I  think  it  is  this :  I  think  the  time  is  coming,  and  coming 
speedily,  when  the  unemployed,  when  the  disinherited, 
when  the  men  without  dollars,  and  with  brains,  when  the 
men  without  personal  ambition  for  themselves,  but  lov- 
ing their  country  and  their  race  more  than  all  else,  will 
be  able  to  put  human  interests  above  commercial  transac- 
tions, and  place  the  claim  of  man  upon  the  resources  of 
nature  and  the  consideration  of  his  fellows  so  infinitely 
beyond  the  claims  of  speculative  investments  that  man 
shall  be  the  master  and  all  else  his  servant.  It  may  be 
that  through  the  universal  bankruptcy  which  threatens 
us  will  come  the  universal  emancipation  of  the  race. 


Earth! 


CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM. 

Civil  service  reform  means  changing  the  methods  by 
which  men  obtain  employment  from  the  government,  m 
carrying  the  mails,  in  keeping  accounts,  m  servmg  on  the 
police  force,  the  fire  department,  paving  the  streets,  or 
in  any  place  where  some  man  is  to  render  service  not  for 
some  other  individual,  but  for  the  whole  body  of  society. 
It  has  been  the  custom  in  this  country  to  have  a  very 
large  share  of  all  the  people  who  are  engaged  in  public 
service  not  elected  to  ofhce,  but  appointed  to  ofhce      in 
the  State  of  New  York,  down  to  about  the  year  1830, 
nearly  all  of  the  county  officers,  like  the  treasurer,  the 
sheriff,  and  the  judges,  were  appointed  by  the  Governor 
of  the  State     The  tendencv  has  been  through  the  years 
to  enlarge  the  number  of  people  who  were  directly  elect- 
ed by  the  people,  and  lower  the  number  which  were  ap- 
pointed.    But  the  number  of  people  who  are   direct  y 
voted  for  or  against  is  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  people  • 
who  reallv  hold  office.     It  is  not  the  man  you  vote  for 
but  the  man  who  is  appointed  by  the  man  who  helped 
o-et  the  man  nominated  that  vou  voted  for  that  makes 
up  the  larger  number  of  the  people  who  serve  society. 
In  our  national  elections  the  number  of  people  we  vote 
for  are  verv  few,  indeed.    We  vote  for  the  electors,  who  in 
turn  vote  for  the  President,  but  when  the  President  is  in 
office  the  cabinet  officers  are  not  there  by  election,  but  by 
appointment,  and  then  all  the  postmasters  have  to  be  ap- 
pointed, and  all  the  clerks,  who  really  do  the  detail  work 
of  the  man  who  was  appointed  to  office  by  the  man  who 
was  elected  to  office.  ^  . 

AVhen  men  have  been  organizing  their  campaigns  tor 
election  to  office  for  a  great  many  years  in  this  country 

123 


124  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

they  have  looked  over  the  Hst  of  people  who  were  anxious 
to  be  in  office  by  appointment,  and  have  endeavored  to 
secure  the  support  of  these  people  who  wanted  to  work 
for  the  government,  by  giving  them  promises  of  positions 
in  consideration  of  special  support  given  themselves, 
either  in  securing  the  nomination,  or  in  securing  the 
election  after  nomination.  This  had  grown  to  be  so 
great  an  evil  that  in  the  national  elections,  instead  of 
great  public  questions  being  voted  for  or  against,  it  was 
not  a  question  as  to  whether  the  tariff  should  stand  or 
not,  it  was  not  a  question  as  to  whether  this  kind  of 
financial  policy  should  be  adopted  or  not,  it  was  not  a 
question  as  to  whether  public  improvements  should  be 
made  or  not;  but  the  sole  question  had  grown  to  be  who- 
should  hold  the  cross-roads  postoffice  in  the  event  of  the 
success  of  a  certain  candidate.  The  matter  of  these  ap- 
pointments became  a  matter  of  such  importance,  that 
the  Senator  who  was  involved  in  the  discussion  of  the 
great  questions  before  the  country  for  settlement  neg- 
lected the  great  question,  with  regard  to  which  he  must 
act,  involving  the  welfare  of  all  the  people,  in  order  to 
join  in  the  controversy  whether  Smith  or  Jones  should 
have  some  out  of  the  way  postoffice,  where  somebody 
had  voted  for  somebody  that  had  placed  somebody  under 
obligation  to  get  the  Senator  into  office  in  the  first  place. 
He  could  not  give  his  attention  to  the  welfare  of  all  the 
people,  but  used  the  power  of  his  office  to  serve  the  few 
who  had  helped  to  secure  his  election  for  him. 

A  Democrat,  not  a  Republican,  a  Democrat— I  wish 
you  would  just  bear  this  in  mind  and  never  forget  it ;  the 
civil  service  reform  movement  was  the  child  of  a  Demo- 
crat, and  the  bill  that  was  first  passed  in  Congress  de- 
clanng  for  the  establishment  of  the  civil  service  reform 
was  introduced  by  a  Democratic  Senator  from  Ohio. 
This  was  the  purpose:  To  so  manage  the  appointments 
for  office,  that  a  man  once  in  office  bv  appointment  should 
not  be  turned  out  of  office  because  his  party  went  out  of 
power  and  out  of  office.  In  other  words,'  the  purpose 
was  to  separate  this  great  ^multi'tude  of  officeholders  in 


CIVIL    SERVICE     REFORM.  1 25 

their  political  interests  from  the  matter  of  securing  a  live- 
lihood. 

When  our  fathers  established  the  Constitution  and 
determined  that  there  should  be  in  this  country  three  de- 
partments of  government,  the  effort  was  made  to  sep- 
arate these  from  each  other  as  far  as  it  was  possible.  The 
Legislative  to  enact,  the  Judicial  to  interpret,  and  the 
Executive  to  enforce  the  law.  And  in  order  that  the  Ju- 
dicial department,  which  was  to  interpret  the  law,  i» 
order  that  the  interpretation  might  not  be  prejudiced,  in 
order  that  the  judge  might  be  above  suspicion  forever, 
they  said.  Lest  this  judge  should  use  this  ofhce  in  order 
to  secure  his  personal  interests,  we  must  so  secure  those 
personal  interests  when  the  Justice  and  the  Chief  Justice 
goes  over  into  the  United  States  Court,  that  he  will  have 
no  further  anxiety  as  to  his  livelihood,  and  that  there- 
fore these  judges  shall  be  appointed  for  life,  that  their 
salaries  shall  be  fixed,  and  that  no  judge's  salary  should 
be  made  less.  Why  this  arrangement  in  attempting  to 
protect  the  justice  in  the  United  States  Court?  The  dis- 
cussions of  the  time  and  the  law  itself  prove  beyond  any 
possible  question  that  that  provision  was  made  in  that 
wav  in  order  that  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court 
should  not  depend  on  the  bread  and  butter  question. 
Whether  it  was  wise  or  not,  whether  that  was  the  best 
way  to  do  it  or  not,  I  will  not  attempt  to  say.  The  found- 
ers of  our  government,  the  authors  of  our  Constitution, 
the  builders  of  the  political  institutions  of  this  country, 
declared  that  if  a  man  was  to  be  absolutely  free  and  un- 
hampered in  his  thinking,  that  thinking  must  be  abso- 
lutely separated  from  the  bread  and  butter  question. 
Now,  politics  had  come  to  a  point  where  this  bread  and 
butter  question  of  public  employes  wa.s  everlastingly  in- 
terfering with  the  political  campaigns,  caucuses  and  con- 
ventions, and  they  were  fighting  out  the  great  campaigns 
where  great  questions  were  involved,  not  fur  the  sake  of 
settling  these  questions  on  their  merits,  but  because  of  the 
triumph  of  a  party  that  would  keep  them  in  a  job. 

This  usage  of  appointing  men  to  olhce  as  rewards  of 
political  service   so  interfered  with  the  conduct  of  cam- 


126  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

paigns  that  it  was  demanded  that  some  action  should  be 
taken  to  protect  the  public  employe  in  his  position,  so  that 
whether  he  was  a  Democrat  or  a  Republican,  so  long  as 
he  would  do  his  work,  he  should  not  be  interfered  with. 

The  Supreme  Court  stood  where  no  power  could  take 
its  living  away  from  it,  just  so  it  was  proposed  to  put 
postmasters  and  the  balance  of  the  civil  list  where,  un- 
coerced and  unhampered,  they  could  give  their  attention 
to  their  duties  in  of^ce,  and  not  to  securing  elections  or 
the  success  of  special  candidates,  in  order  to  furnish  spe- 
cial appointments.  Whatever  we  may  say  about  the  wis- 
dom of  the  law  which  appointed  a  justice  on  that  basis,  we 
may  well  agree  that  if  you  can  rob  a  man  of  his  daily 
bread  you  may  rob  him  of  his  independence  at  the  same 
time.  Regardless  of  the  success  or  failure  which  has  fol- 
lowed, the  motive  that  lay  back  of  it,  the  purpose  that  jus- 
tified it,  is  a  purpose  so  w^orthy  that  it  seems  to  me  no 
American  citizen  can  question  its  wisdom  or  its  desirabil- 
ity for  a  moment. 

But  let  us  examine  for  a  moment  further  some  of  the 
things  that  are  true  in  this  country.  Benjamin  F.  Butler 
said,  "If  the  offices  are  a  good  thing,  why  not  let  all 
Amiericari)  citizens  have  an  opportunity  of  getting  them, 
and  if  the  offices  are  a  bad  thing  why  insist  on  a  small 
company  of  people  enduring  the  burden  all  of  the  time?" 

The  first  serious  fight  over  public  appointments  was 
under  the  administration  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  Up  to 
that  time  the  appointments  had  been  made  by  one  admin- 
istration which  had  succeeded  itself  a  couple  of  times, 
once  in  Washington,  and  once  in  Adams.  When  Thomas 
Jefferson  came  to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  Ad- 
ams discharged  men  and  appointed  others  up  to  the  very 
hour  when  it  was  time  for  the  new  officer  to  take  his  place, 
and  then  Thomas  Jefferson  came  into  office,  and  began 
imimediately  to  reinstate  his  friends  who  had  been  turned 
out  of  office,  and  to  discharge  from  office  John  Adams' 
Federals  and  to  substitute  Jeffersonian  Democrats  in  their 
places.  There  was  a  loud  outcry  at  the  conduct  of  Mr. 
Jefferson,  and  a  letter  and  petition,  asking  him  to  cease 
in  this,  was  prepared  and  forwarded  to  him  from  New 


CIVIL    SERVICE     REFORM.  127 

Haven.  Thomas  Jefferson  said  in  reply,  "The  appoint- 
ments under  the  administration  are  occupied  fully,  occu- 
pied by  men  who  belong  to  another  party.  Fairness  be- 
tween the  men  who  represent  both  parties  would  seem  to 
justify  that  an  equal  share  of  these  public  and  desirable 
positions  should  be  given  to  the  friends  of  the  new  party 
along  with  the  friends  of  the  old."  "And,"  said  ^Ir.  Jef- 
ferson, in  language  that  has  been  frequently  quoted  ever 
since,  '"inasmuch  as  few  public  officers  die,  and  none  re- 
sign, it  is  necessary  to  turn  them  out  of  office  in  order  to 
get  the  vacancies  to  fill." 

Andrew  Jackson  coming  into  power,  again  repeated 
the  work  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  patron  saint  and  found- 
er of  the  Democratic  party.  The  complaint  was  made 
again,  but  inasmuch  as  all  the  men  in  office  were  his  po- 
litical opponents,  he  never  stopped  his  work  until  all  the 
men  in  office  had  become  his  political  friends. 

Abraham  Lincoln  went  into  office,  and  like  Jefferson 
and  Jackson,  he  found  the  offices  occupied  by  his  political 
opponents,  and  like  Andrew  Jackson,  he  made  a  clean 
sweep  of  the  matter,  and  within  a  very  short  time  after 
Lincoln  was  President  there  were  no  Democrats  in  office 
anywhere.  Beginning  with  the  Lincoln  administration, 
the  fight  for  appointments  went  on,  not  between  the  Dem- 
ocrats and  Republicans  alone,  but  between  factions  of 
Republicans  as  well.  When  the  civil-service  law  was 
finally  established,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Republican 
party,  of  the  Democratic  p^rty,  in  all  the  elections,  from 
the  smallest  local  school  district  up  to  the  Presidency,  to 
measure  out  and  promise  in  advance  all  these  different  ap- 
pointments, and  the  fight  for  victory  was  not  a  light  be- 
tween public  measures  ;  it  became  imnicdiately  a  contest 
to  determine  which  of  the  two  forces,  involving  the  head 
of  the  ticket,  and  a  thousand  others  all  down  the  line,  all 
fighting,  not  for  what  they  believe  about  tariff  reform, 
they  did  not  know  what  the  tariff  was  about ;  not  for  whac 
they  understood  about  the  money  question,  for  they  had 
not  studied  the  money  question  ;  they  were  fighting  for  a 
place  somewhere  that  had  a  salary  attached  to  it,  and 
were  not  trying  to  understand  anything  else  involved  in 


128  £VOLUTIONAkY    POLITICS. 

the  fight.  The  civil-service  law  said,  ''We  will  appoint 
commissions.  We  wil4  have  a  plan  of  examinations.  W^e 
will  have  those  men  who  pass  go  on  the  list.  We  will 
have  men  come  into  the  public  service,  not  because  they 
are  Democrats  or  Republicans,  but  because  they  can  pass 
an  examination."    And  the  effort  was  made. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  discuss  its  success  or  failure  just 
now,  but  I  wish  you  to  go  a  step  further  with  me.  The 
civil-service  reform  law  was  established  in  order  that  the 
employe  in  the  postoffice,  and  on  the  police  force,  and  in 
the  fire  department,  might  feel  secure  in  his  place,  whetli- 
er  he  was  a  Democrat  or  a  Republican.  Why?  In  order 
that  he  could  be  free  in  the  exercise  of  his  own  judgment 
as  an  American  citizen,  his  politics  and  his  job  should  not 
be  tied  together.  If  it  is  important  that  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States  shall  stand  in  a  position  where  ren- 
dering his  decisions  he  may  not  be  attacked  through  his 
living,  if  it  is  important  that  the  postal  clerk  in  rendering 
his  decisions  shall  stand  in  a  position  where  his  living- 
shall  be  secure,  it  is  also  equally  important  that  the  clerk 
in  Marshall  Field's  great  store,  or  the  gripman  on  Yerkes' 
railway  system,  shall  stand  in  a  position  where  the  way 
he  votes  shall  not  interfere  with  his  job. 

When  the  founders  of  our  government  wrote  the 
American  constitution,  when  the  advocates  of  civil  ser- 
vice reform  succeeded  in  their  reform,  they  established  in 
America  an  idea,  and  when  that  idea  shall  come  to  its  full- 
ness no  man  who  votes  in  America,  and  no  woman  who 
votes, — for  women  w^ill  vote  as  well,  when  that  hour  ar- 
rives,— no  man  or  woman  shall  stand  in  a  position  where 
the  expression  of  one's  judgment  at  the  ballot-box  niay  be 
answered  by  robbing  him  of  his  opportunity  to  earn  a  liv- 
ing. It  is  a  matter  of  serious  importance  that  the  boys 
who  carry  the  mail  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  toil  un- 
hindered and  unhampered  because  they  voted  for  McKin- 
ley,  or  because  they  voted  for  Bryan,  or  because  they 
voted  for  anybody,  or  because  they  did  not  vote  at  all.  It 
is  a  matter  of  more  importance,  there  are  more  men  work- 
ing on  the  railways,  there  are  more  men  working  in  the 
mines,  there  are  more  men  working  in  the  great  steel 


CIVIL    SERVICE     REFORM.  I^g 

plants,  there  are  more  men  clerking  in  great  stores,  there 
are  more  farm  hands,  more  street-car  men,  more  builders 
of  sewers,  and  more  pavers  of  streets, — there  are  more 
men  in  the  trades,  there  are  more  men  who  toil  for  wages, 
outside  of  Uncle  Sam's  employment  than  those  who  are 
there.  Listen !  If  it  is  a  matter  of  public  importance  that 
civil-service  reform  shall  protect  the  smaller  number  who 
are  working  for  Uncle  Sam,  it  is  infinitely  of  more  im- 
portance that  by  some  legislation  the  men  who  are  wor'c- 
ing  for  Yerkes  shall  have  the  same  protection. 

Now  I  raise  a  question.  I  stand  here  and  affirm  that 
the  thing  that  the  founders  of  our  government  wantea  in 
the  Supreme  Court,  I  affirm  that  the  thing  which  the  civil- 
service  reformers  were  feeling  after  when  thev  wrote  the 
law,  I  affirm  that  the  thing  which  lav  back  of  those  things 
is  a  thing  of  the  utmost  desirability ;  but  I  affirm  again  that 
they  have  led  us  in  the  wrong  direction,  for  ever  bring- 
ing us  to  that  end.  Now,  listen  again.  What  is  it  that 
we  want  to  do?  We  want  to  separate  the  personal  con- 
victions of  the  voter  from  the  personal  support  of  the 
voter.  How  is  it?  This  way.  A  man  may  vote  anv  way 
he  chooses,  and  whether  he  is  working  for  Uncle  Sam  or 
Yerkes,  or  Field,  or  anybody  else,  he  shall  not  lose  his 
living  because  he  so  votes,  not  in  order  that  the  individual 
may  not  lose  his  job,  but  in  order  that  society  may  not 
lose  the  advantage  of  that  individual's  unbiased  iudirinent 
at  the  ballot-box.  ^  ' 

Here  is  a  man  serving  on  a  jury.  A  man  is  being  tried 
for  murder.  He  has  sworn  to  render  an  unbiased  judg- 
ment according  to  the  facts  and  the  law.  He  sits  and 
waits  while  he  hears  the  testimonv,  and  listens  to  the  ar- 
gument, and  the  charge  of  the  judge,  and  then  he  goes 
into  the  private  jury-room  and  tries  to  settle  an  okfpri- 
yate  grudge  against  the  man  on  trial  for  his  life.  He  goes 
into  the  private  jury-room  and  there  attempts  to  do  a 
favor  to  the  attorney  for  the  defense.  If  he  goes  into  the 
jury-room  in  a  position  where  if  he  does  not  decide 
in  the  case  as  his  employer  wants  him  to,  he  loses  his  job 
next  day,  what  will  be  the  result?  Listen.  It  is  a  matter 
of  importance  that  that  man  shall  not  lose  his  job,  but  it  is 


130  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

a  matter  of  infinitely  more  importance  that  society  shall 
have  his  unbiased  judgment  when  he  sits  as  a  juror,  and 
his  brother  is  on  trial  for  his  life. 

It  is  important  that  in  the  annual  election  we  shall  en- 
able men  to  vote  without  the  possibility  of  losing  their 
employment,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  infinitely  more  import- 
ance that  America  may  have  the  benefit  of  the  judgment 
of  every  American,  unbiased,  unhampered,  and  un- 
coerced. Very  well.  That  is,  then,  wha^we  are  feeling 
after.  What  is  the  surest  way  to  get  it?  Let  us  once  and 
forever  enter  a  divorce  between  public  offices  and  public 
questions.  Let  the  man  who  goes  to  the  executive  office 
go  there  on  his  individual  merits  as  a  man,  separated  from 
every  public  question,  going  simply  because  he  has  ability 
and  integrity ;  and  let  every  public  question  go  to  the  di- 
rect vote  of  the  people,  separated  from  every  candidate, 
and  divorced  from  all  appointing  power. 

I  want  a  division  in  politics  in  Chicago.  I  want  an  op- 
portunity to  vote  for  a  mayor  in  Chicago,  not  because  he 
is  a  silver  man,  not  because  he  is  a  gold  man,  not  because 
he  is  a  Democrat,  not  because  he  is  a  Republican,  or  a 
Populist,  or  for  any  other  reason  that  hitches  him  to  a 
public  question,  so  that  I  cannot  vote  for  the  man  and 
the  measure  separate  from  each  ot'her.  I  want  an  oppor- 
tunity to  vote  for  a  candidate  for  Mayor  who  will  be 
pledged  in  his  campaign  that  in  the  event  of  his  election 
he  will  follow  the  instructions  of  the  people,  whatever 
tho'se  instructions  may  be.  I  do  not  want  any  more  elec- 
tions for  aldermen  on  the  score  that  tihey  will  not  give 
aw^ay  any  more  franchises  unless  they  get  pay  for  them. 
I  do  not  want  any  more  franchises  granted  in  tihe  city 
of  Chicago  except  all  the  voters  of  Chicago  s*hall  first  have 
an  opportunity  to  vote  on  that  question.  I  want  the  can- 
didates separated  from  the  question,  and  then,  inasmuch 
as  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  vote  for  a  given  candidate 
in  order  that  we  may  pass  a  given  law,  the  candidate  may 
stand  on  his  merits,'  if  he  has  any — he  usually  does  not — 
the  candidate  may  stand  on  his  own  merits,  if  he  has  any, 
and  fhe  question,  separate  from  the  candidate,  may  stand 
on  its  merits  also.    What  was  the  plan  of  the  court's  inde- 


CIVIL    SERVICE     REFORM. 


131 


pendence  established  for?  To  get  an  unbiased  judgment. 
W'hat  is  the  way  to  get  that  unbiased  judgment  from  t/Iie 
voter  as  well  as  the  judge?  Separate,  absolutely  and  en- 
tirely, tshe  appointing  power  from  the  legislative  power. 
This  is  what  we  call  the  Initiative  and  Referendum: 

William  J.  Bryan,  before  the  Democratic  Committee 
•on  Resolutions,  of  the  Democratic  national  convention, 
in  its  session  in  Chicago  last  summer,  proposed  a  plank 
for  the  Democratic  platform  declaring  in  favor  of  the 
Initiative  and  Referendum.  The  plank  was  rejected  tlien, 
it  was  not  a  part  of  that  platform,  but  Mr.  Br^'an  has  been 
doing  some  good  campaign  work  since  then,  and  Senator 
Janes,  the  dhairman,  and  the  leading  Democrats  who  are 
still  in  the  Democratic  party  great  enough  to  believe  in 
the  judgment  and  conscience  and  character  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  are  to-day  to  a  man  committed  to  putting  that 
plank  into  the  next  platform.  Listen  a  mom-ent !  We  will 
not  only  have  laws  in  this  country  that  will  enable  the 
Supreme  Court  to  render  its  decisions  without  having  its 
bread  and  butter  taken  away  from  it,  but  we  will  have, 
within  the  next  dozen  years  in  this  country,  new  laws  that 
will  enable  every  American  voter  to  go  to  the  ballot-box 
and  vote  for  what  he  thinks,  without  having  his  oppor- 
tunity to  earn  his  living  taken  away  from  him. 

I  have  one  word  to  say  to  our  brothers  who  ar^  carry- 
ing on  the  civil-service  reform.  We  ask  for  a  civil-service 
reform  that  will  give  the  man  who  is  on  the  police  force, 
and  the  man  who  is  in  the  post  office  an  opportunity  to 
vote  for  what  -he  thinks  without  losing  his  job.  We  de- 
mand at  tihe  same  tim-e — without  being  required  to  trust 
Mr.  Yerkes  as  our  only  assurance  that  it  will  be  done — 
we  demand  at  the  same  time,  that  ever\'  toiler  on  the 
street  railway  lines,  in  every  s^hop  in  America,  and  on 
every  farm,  s\hall  have  an  opportunity  to  vote  what  he 
thinks  without  losing  his  job,  too.  Civil-service  reform 
tliat  limits  itself  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  is  a 
farce.  Civil-service  reform  that  limits  itself  to  the  post- 
office  and  the  police  force  is  too  narrow.  Civil-ser- 
vice reform  which  protects  the  man  who  has  a 
a  good  job,  and    gives    no    protection  to  the    man    who 


132  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

has  a  poor  one  is  a  farce.  Civil-service  reform  whicli  pro- 
tects the  man  who  'has  a  job,  and  leaves  to  starve  the  man 
who  has  not,  must  be  succeeded  by  a  civil-service  which 
will  place  within  the  reach  of  every  one  of  us  an  oppor- 
tunity to  toil,  and  separate  absolutely  his  place  as  a 
worker  in  a  shop  from  his  rights  as  a  voter  at  the  ballot- 
box. 


MUNICIPAL  OWNERSHIP— TWO   RIDES  FOR 

A  NICKEL. 

I  believe  t'hat  municipal  questions  alone  s'hould  be  up 
for  settlement  in  municipal  elections,  and  tliat  national 
issues  sfhould  be  the  controlling  interest  in  national  elec- 
tions. It  is  impossible  for  the  City  Hall  to  settle  the 
tariff  question.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  American  Con- 
gress i'S  going  to  help  us  in  our  municipal  affairs.  So  long 
as  national  issues  are  made  the  question  by  which 
municipal  elections  are  determined,  so  long  t'he  munici- 
pality will  be  subject  to  a  corrupt  government. 

It  is  only  once  in  a  life-time  that  the  same  question 
should  be  in  issue  In  national  elections  and  in  local  elec- 
tions, but  at  t'his  time  such  a  condition  exists.  The  most 
urgent  questions  of  national  reform  are  only  other  forms 
of  the  same  issues  which  are  of  the  first  importance  in  our 
municipal  elections. 

When  Mayor  Swift  was  about  to  act  with  regard  to  the 
ordinance  for  a  four-cent  fare  Mr.  Yerkes,  with  the  breath 
of  the  penitentiany  still  on  his  garments,  wrote  to  Mayor 
Swift  an  interesting  communication  concerning  the  rela- 
tions of  the  city  to  the  corporations  in  which  Mr.  Yerkes 
is  interested.  The  nature  and  the  source  of  his  letter  jus- 
tify us  in  characterizing  the  communication  as  a  message 
from  the  penitentiary  to  the  municipality.  Just  before 
election  the  same  Yerkes  wrote  a  letter  addrcss-ed  to  his 
employes.  It  was  posted  in  tihe  shops,  it  was  circulat<?d 
among  the  men.  It  urged  them  to  vote  for  Mr.  McKin- 
ley.  His  letter  to  Mayor  Swift  is  only  anofher  form  of 
the  same  argument  which  he  sent  to  his  men.  Tlie  ques- 
tion involved  in  national  politics  about  which  he  wrote 
his  men  is  only  another  form  of  tlie  same  question  abomt 
whrch  he  wrote  to  the  Mayor.     It  involves  the  matter  of 

»33 


134  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS.  ^ 

Special  privileges,  of  special  advantages  for  the  beneifit, 
•of  a  few,  with  measureless  wrongs  for  the  many.  Mr. 
Yerkes  said  in  'his  letters — Mr.  Swift  said  in  his  message 
vetoing  the  four-cent  ordinance — that  the  issue  was  re- 
pudiatio'u;  that  neither  the  city,  nor  the  nation,  could  be 
a  party  to  such  a  wrong. 

Repudiation  is  a  term  that  has  grown  familiar,  it  is 
an  accusation  that  has  been  tossed  about  until  we  needto 
look  at  it  and  determine  w^.hat  it  is,  and  who  are  the  parties 
who  are  guilty  of  real  or  attempted  repudiation.  The 
gold  standard  has  cut  in  two  the  prices  ot  all  of  Hhe 
products  of  labor.  The  average  of  prices  has  fallen,  and 
fallen  rapidly.  There  is  no  way  by  which  this  fall  in  t'he 
average  price  can  be  explained  except  by  the  relation  of 
money  to  business.  If  tihe  volume  of  money  remains  the 
same  and  the  price  of  flour  goes  up  and  I  continue  to  buy 
flour  I  have  less  money  with  which  to  buy  something 
el':'e.  The  demand  for  the  something  else  slackens,  aiid 
the  price  of  tihe  something  else  must  fall.  If  the  price 
of  flour  falls  I  spend  less  money  for  flour,  and  have  more 
money  for  something  else.  With  more  money  to  make 
other  purchases  the  demand  for  the  other  things  increases 
and  their  prices  are  restored.  But  this  fluctuation  of  prices 
between  the  one  article  and  another  can  in  no  way  affect 
the  general  average  of  prices,  for  where  one  article  ad- 
vances another  declines,  and  the  average  remains  sub- 
stantially 'tihe  same.  There  has  been  a  fall  in  prices 
running  on  through  a  series  of  years,  a  continual  decline, 
not  of  this  article,  or  that,  as  measured  against  another, 
but  the  general  average  of  all  prices  has  been  going 
steadily  down  for  twenty-three  years. 

Now,  when  tihe  old  franchises  were  granted,  when 
the  price  of  street-car  fares  was  fixed  at  five  cents,  the 
product  of  a  day's  labor  sold  for  a  dollar  t'hat  sells  for 
fifty  cents  now.  The  products  of  labor,  the  price  of 
labor,  the  dhances  of  the  laborer  as  related  to  his  ability 
to  produce  values  and  to  exchange  these  values  for 
street-car  fares  have  fallen.  It  takes  twice  as  many  hours 
to  get 'the  dollar,  but  the  dollar  buys  no  more  rides  than 
formerly. 


MUNICIPAL    OWNERSHIP.  I35 

We  were  told  in  the  campaign  that  the  dollar  would 
buy  more  food,  more  clothes,  more  of  the  things  that  a 
laborer  buys,  and  therefore  if  he  produced  more  to  get 
the  dollar  no  harm  was  done.  But  this  is  not  true  of 
taxes,  nor  debts,  nor  bonds,  nor  mortgages,  nor  street- 
car fares.  When  a  workingman's  wages  were  higlicr 
Yerkes  and  the  balance  of  t/he  corporations  joined  hands 
and  conspired  and  fought  together  to  give  us  the  gold 
standard  and  to  hold  it  ov^r  us  in  spite  of  ourselves,  anil 
ihey  ihave  succeeded.  We  ask  for  the  restoration  of  the 
people's  money  in  order  tlhat  we  may  restore  normal 
l>rices.  and  they  answer  that  we  must  not  do  so,  that  it 
would  be  repudiation  to  do  it;  but  the  gold  standard  has 
cut  our  prices  in  two.  Let  Yerkes  cut  his  prices  in  two  as 
well.  Let  the  corporations,  trusts,  and  combines  take 
the  medicine  they  prescribe  for  us.  Are  they,  after  all, 
for  repudiation  when  the  obligation  means  that  the  level 
of  the  prices  they  are  to  get  sihall  stand  side  by  side  with 
the  prices  they  compel  us  to  accept? 

But  they  answer  again  that  to  cut  the  prices  of  t'he 
street-car  fares  in  two  would  be  unlawful,  a  violation  of 
contracts,  would  not  be  confirmed  by  the  courts.  Then 
why  not  pass  the  ordinance  for  a  four-cent  fare  and  test 
the  principle  in  the  courts?  The  principle  has  been  tested 
before,  it  has  been  tested  in  transportation,  it  has  been 
tested  in  passenger  rates  on  the  long  lines  across  t'he 
country.  The  opposition  to  the  four-cent  fare  was  not  so 
serJous  because  it  involved  t/lie  loss  of  a  penny.  The 
secret  of  Yerkes'  opposition  to  the  four-cent  fare,  the 
reason  why  the  gang  that  rules  and  robs  us  wonld  not 
consent  to  'have  a  penny  taken  from  the  five-cent  ride  is, 
because  they  were  unvnlling  to  allow  one  step  to  be 
taken  in  the  direction  of  justice,  lest  with  the  people  once 
thinking  along  the  lines  of  the  wrongs  that  they  have 
done  us,  the  people  would  insist,  as  would  be  their  right 
and  duty  to  do,  either  on  the  correction  of  the<se  wrongs 
once  for  all,  or  on  the  adjustment  of  fixed  charges  where 
public  services  are  rendered,  to  correspond  witili  the  rates 
which  the  gold  stan<]ard  has  thrust  upon  everything  else. 

But  my  position  is  that  the  whole  plan  of  a  private 


136  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

frandliise  for  performing  a  public  service  is  in'herently  and 
necessarily  corrupt.  The  city  of  Chicago  is  a  corporation, 
it  is  a  business  body.  Of  this  corporation  we  are  all  mem- 
bers. We  were  incorporated  for  the  express  purpose  of 
providing  for  the  public  health,  water,  streets,  lights, 
police  supervision,  tran'Sportation,  all  the  things  which 
are  necessarily  of  a  public  nature,  and  which  involve  the 
interest  of  us  all  together;  we  were  incorporated  and 
made  a  business  body  for  the  express  purpose  of  attend- 
ing to  these  tihings. 

Let  me  give  yooi  an  illustration,  let  me  tell  you  how 
railroads  are  built.  A  railroad  is  built  by  a  company  of 
'men  organizing  a  company,  issuing  stock  to  themselves 
for  which  no  payment  is  made.  Then  the  line  of  the  road 
is  surveyed,  bonds  are  issued  on  the  projected  line,  sold 
for  several  times  the  value  of  the  road,  a-nd  tllie  road  is' 
built.  Does  the  corporation  which  was  incorporated  to 
build  and  operate  the  railroad  build  the  road?  Not  at  all. 
Usually  another  body  called  a  construction  company, 
composed  of  a  portion  of  the  stockholders,  leaving  the 
balance  out  in  the  cold,  builds  the  road.  The  bonds  are 
sold  for,  say,  thirty  tlhousand  dollars  a  mile,  the  road  is 
built  for  the  railroad  company  by  a  new  corporation  com- 
posed of  a  small  portion  of  the  old  corporation  at  an  ex- 
pense of,  say,  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  mile,  and  the 
members  of  the  new  corporation  composed  of  a  portion 
of  the  old  corporation  puts  the  difference,  fifteen  thou- 
sand dollars  a  mile,  into  their  own  pockets.  What  do 
you  think  of  the  relations  of  a  member  of  the  new  cor- 
poration to  a  member  of  the  old  corporation,  who  has 
been  excluded  from  the  new  corporation?  Has  he  been 
swindled,  imposed  upon?  Is  not  the  nature  of  snch  a 
transaction  necessarily  and  inherently  corrupt? 

Well,  the  city  of  Chicago  is  a  business  body,  it  is  a 
business  corporation.  It  was  incorporated  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  doing  certain  things.  Instead  of  doing 
tbem  a  portion  of  the  people  of  Chicago'  turned  around 
and  organized  other  corporations  made  up  of  only  a 
share  of  the  members  of  the  original  corporation,  and 
these  new  corporations  inside  of  the  original  corporation 


MUNICIPAL     OWNERSHIP.  137 

are  furnishing  gas,  and  transportation,  not  for  tihe  benefit 
of  all,  but  to  the  infinite  injury  of  the  most  of  us,  and  to 
very  great  profit  of  the  few.  It  is  not  necessary  to  prove 
that  tihese  corporations  are  bad,  that  their  managers  are 
false,  bhat  their  stock  is  watered,  that  their  cars  are  cold, 
or  that  they  are  slow,  or  old;  the  thing  itself,  the  very 
plan  of  having  one  corporation  inside  of  another  to  do  the 
very  things  for  which  the  larger  corporation  was  in  the 
first  place  created  is  in  itself  inherently  and  necessarily 
corrupt.  The  relations  of  these  corporations  ins-ide  of 
corporations  to  the  general  government  of  the  city  itself 
is  bad  beyond  measure. 

In  the  old  American  towns  there  were  four  forces  in 
each  municipal  election,  the  church,  the  school,  the  work- 
shop, and  the  fireside,  and  in  every  town-meeting  these 
four  forces  were  there,  and  whatever  was  undertaken  was 
undertaken  in  their  behalf.  I  do  not  mean  to  contend  tihat 
they  were  always  right,  that  their  decisions  were  always 
wise.  I  only  insist  that  t(he  forces  which  represent  intelli- 
gence, piety,  industry,  and  the  fireside  virtues  were  the 
dominant  forces  in  the  old  American  municipality.  There 
are  four  forces  still  in  our  city  election.  They  are  not  the 
church,  and  the  school,  and  the  workshop,  and  the  home. 
These  modern  masters  of  municipal  life  are  contracts, 
franchises,  licenses  and  spoils.  A  single  contractor 
anxious  to  get  a  contract  for  furnishing  poor  beef  for  the 
poor  people  in  tlhe  poorhouse  at  Dunning  'has  more  in- 
fluence in  a  Cook  County  election  than  any  preacher  in 
the  city  of  Chicago. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to-day  to  speak  of  contractors, 
of  the  licenses  through  which  Chicago  traffics  and  black- 
mails and  buys  and  sells  the  strength  and  virtue  of  her 
children,  nor  to  discuss  the  spoils  of  office.  Under  its 
franchise,  the  private  corporation  renders  a  public  service; 
w^hat  are  its  relations  to  municipal  affairs?  Tdiree  years 
ago  when  the  boodle  council  granted  a  boodle  ordinance 
to  a  new  boodle  gas  company,  and  the  boodle  newspapers 
and  tihe  boodle  aldermen  interested  in  the  old  boodle  gas 
trust,  which  was  furnishing  gas  for  the  Chicago  people  at 
ten  times   its  cost, — when  this  ordinance  was  proposed 


138  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

there  was  a  great  hurrah  in  the  city  of  Chicago  over  mu- 
nicipal misrule,  and  the  effort  was  made  to  oust  the 
boodle  aldermen  by  a  reform  campaign. 

Hyde  Park  is  a  prohibition  district.  Measured  by  the 
v/ealth,  the  stone  fronts,  the  boulevards,  the  churches,  the 
schools,  and  its  great  university,  Hyde  Park  is  not  ex- 
celled by  any  district  in  Chicago,  but  Plydie  Park,  tihe 
prohibition  district,  where  the  good  people  lived,  had  a 
representative  in  the  City  Hall  who  could  not  have  been 
elected  from,  the  First  Ward.  Hyde  Park  was  a  prohibi- 
tion district.  It  had  no  saloon  within  its  borders,  but  it 
was  represented  in  the  City  Hall  by  a  saloon-keeper.  Of 
course,  he  could  not  be  expected  to  be  very  much  in  ad- 
vance of  the  character  of  his  constitue-nts.  Professor 
Bemis,  of  the  Chicago  University,  started  a  campaign  to 
correct  the  wrong,  and  to  give  Hyde  Park  representation 
in  the  City  Hall  consistent  with  its  elegance  and  its  repu- 
tation. A  public  meeting  was  called.  It  was  widely  ad- 
vertised, the  rage  of  t(he  good  people  was  stirred  to  its 
uttermost.  Plyde-Parkers  in  the  name  of  good  govern- 
ment, for  the  sake  of  a  reform  administration,  swarmed 
into  the  building  and  filled  the  hall  to  the  fullest  possible 
capacity  of — just  thirteen  dhairs.  Why  were  t(hey  not 
there?  Why  did  they  'have  a  boodler  in  the  City  Hall? 
The  residents  of  Hyde  Park  are  largely  bondholders, 
stockholders,  personally  and  privately  interested  in  the 
great  corporations.  The-s-e  corporations  must  own  the 
City  Hall,  and  the  only  way  to  own  it  is  to  have  a  repre- 
sentative they  can  buy.  Do  not  understand  me  as  directly 
attacking  the  good  stockholders  of  the  citv  railroads,  of 
■the  gas  trust,  and  of  the  other  corporations,  which  we 
have,  and  which  have  us.  When  t(he  first  franchise  was 
granted  the  city  of  Chicago  it  could  not  be  granted  until 
the  proposed  corporation  was  first  able  to  get  control  in 
the  City  Hall,  and  from  that  time  until  this  that  corpora- 
tion, and  every  one  which  has  followed  it,  has  found  it 
necessary  in  order  to  be  able  to  manage  its  own  business 
in  its  own  way  to  continue  to  control  at  the  City  Hall. 
When  the  first  framchisie  was  granted  that  corporation 
went  into  politics,  wa?  in  politics  before  it  was  granted. 


MUNI<'!i    M       • 'v*  NIK- nil'.  1  j<J 

must  remain  in  politics,  and  will  remain  in  politics  so  long 
as  I'he  franchises  last. 

The  demand  for  two  rides  for  a  nickel  is  directly  in 
th-e  line  with  what  all  these  corporations  have  been  giving 
us  by  compelling  us  to  submit  to  the  gold  standard;  but 
better  than  that,  it  is  in  the  line  of  bringing  these  fraur 
chises  into  subordination  to  the  public  welfare,  and  when 
our  country  studies  this  question  once  it  will  settle  tftiis 
(luestion  forever. 

But  -Mr.  Yerkes  insists  that  'he  must  have  a  five-cent 
fare  in  order  to  pay  living  wages  to  his  w^orkingmen. 
What  sort  of  fares  would  he  need  to  charge  in  order  to 
s'horten  the  hours  and  lengthen  the  pay  sufftcient  to  make 
living  wages  mean  an  opportunity  for  the  employes  to 
live  a  man's  life?  It  is  the  old  story  of  widows  and 
orphans.  I  presume  Mr.  Yerkes  is  himself  an  orphan, 
"Wegg  was  an  orphan." 

I  know  a  family  in  Englewood  of  seven  children.  The 
father  is  wiuhout  employment,  a  young  girl  is  working  in 
a  department  store  for  $3  a  week.  Of  this  sum  she  pays 
60  cents  a  week  for  car  fares.  The  family  is  living  on  tihe 
$2.40  that  is  left.  This  60  cents  a  Avcek  the  poor  girl  must 
continue  to  pay  in  order  that  the  widows  and  orphans 
may  have  divide/nds  on  stock  they  own,  and  in  o^rder  t>hat 
the  poor  workingmen  may  continue  to  have  starvation 
wages,  whidh  Yerkes  calls  living  wages;  that  is,  I  suppose, 
living  on  the  slow  starvation  plan.  These  men  are  already 
earning  better  pay  than  they  get,  and  these  companies 
are  payin/g  large  dividends  on  watered  stock.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  fact  that  they  so  repudiate  the  truth,  so  ignore  their 
duties,  so  wrong  their  workingmen,  they  coidd  and  would 
pay  them  better  wages  now,  would  shorten  their  hours, 
would  give  them  a  man's  chance,  and  it  could  still  be 
done  with  two  rides  for  a  nickel. 

But  the  last  defense  of  every  wrong  is  that  it  is  a  vested 
right.  No  man  ever  talks  of  vested  rights  until  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  defend  an  old  wrong,  and  then  because 
the  wrong  was  permitted  }esterday  it  mnst  be  permitted 
to-day.  The  money  invested  in  connection  with  the 
wrong  of  yesterday  is  vested  still,  and  no  right  on  earth  is 


1^0  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

sacred  when  it  stands  in  the  way  of  dividends  oai  old  in- 
vestments and  interest  on  old  bonds. 

A  railroad  train  is  rushing  across  the  country,  it  is 
covering  a  thousand  miles  in  its  flight.    Every  switchman, 
every  trackman,  every  tender  of  a  bridge,  through  every 
;tunnel,  down  every  dizzy  mountain  side,   across  every 
swinging  bridge,  every  brakeman,  every  conductor,  every 
engioeer,  every  fireman,  every  telegraph  operator,  every 
moulder  in  'tihe  s'hops,  every  workman  v/ith  his  hands 
stained  by  toil  who  touches  the  train,  or  opens  the  way  for 
its  passage,  carries  in  'his  hands  the  life  of  every  man  who 
rides.    What  right  hsiS  any  man  to  stand  in  the  midst  of 
•such  a  combination  but  to  do  'his  duty,  to  fill  his  place,  to 
help  make  things   go  right?     But  when  he   comes  to 
wreck  and  rob,  to  misplace  the  switch,  to  undermane  a 
bridge,  to  conspire  to  destroy,  he  deserves  to  die.    Society 
is  more  marvelous  than  a  railway  system.     The  move- 
ment of  the  human  race  involves  more  than  the  pass-age  of 
a  train.    But  all  the  men  who  walk  and  speak  and  strive 
on  all  the  earth  are  here  to  help  or  hinder,  to  bless  or 
curse,  to  build  or  to  destroy.    What  right  has  any  man  in 
the  m'idst  of  this  marvelous  thing  we  call  society  if  he  be 
not  here  to  bless  and  build?    When  any  document,  when 
any  franchise,  when  any  contract  of  yesterday  involves  the 
desolation,  involves  the  poverty  of  to-day  and  the  desola- 
tion of  to-morrow  there  are  no  rights,  there  can  be  no 
rights,  vested  or  unvested.    Whatever  strikes  at  t*he  wel- 
fare of  the  human  race  is  wrong.    Whatever  protects  and 
extends  a  wron.sr  is  a  crime. 


THE  DEPARTMENT  STORE. 

In  discussing  the  Department  Store  I  am  very  anxious 
that  we  shall  be  able  to  separate  ourselves  for  a  little  linic 
from  any  personal  entanglements  we  may  have  witili  the 
subject  under  discussion.  It  may  be  that  we  have  a  hun- 
dred people  in  this  hall,  every  one  of  whom  own  depart- 
ment stores.  If  that  is  the  case,  I  hope  you  will  bear  m 
mind  that  I  am  not  discussing  the  department  store  which 
you  particularly  happen  to  own.  And  the  same  tiling  is 
true  also  of  the  people  who  own  the  small  stores.  If  we 
have  two  or  three  hundred  people  here  who  are  interested 
in  the  small  stores,  I  want  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  in  dis- 
cussing the  department  store  I  am  not  attacking  your 
store,  nor  defending  it.  Only  by  forgetting  these  per- 
sonal interests  will  it  be  possible  for  you  to  go  with  me  in 
a  careful  ^situdy  of  some  of  the  principles  underlying  our 
present  troubles,  and  if  possible  to  discover,  if  we  may, 
just  where  we  are  in  a  revolution  which  is  leading  us  some- 
where, and  must  land  us  somewhere. 

I  will  ask  you  for  a  little  time  to  think  withme  as  to 
some  of  the  things  that  are  true  of  our  capitalistic  system. 
Capitalism  does  not  mean  that  capital  is  involved,  for 
there  are  no  cnt-erprises  that  can  be  carried  oii  without 
capital.  Capital  is  weaMi  devoted  to  the  creation  of  more 
wealth.  Flour  out  of  which  you  are  baking  your  bread; 
that  is  .not  capital.  It  is  wealth,  but  it  is  not  devoted 
directly  to  creating  more  wealth.  If  you  have  a  suit  of 
clothes  which  vou  are  wearing  every  day,  that  is  wealth, 
but  it  is  not  capit-al,  as  our  tools,  and  machines,  and  s'hops, 
and  farm-s  are  vvhidh  are  used  in  creating  more  wealth. 
Wheat  that  is  made  into  bread  to  be  eaten  -is  not  capital. 
To  sow^  it  in  the  ground  to  bring  another  harvest  makes  it 

I4X 


142  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

capital.  No  enlerprlse  can  go  very  far  without  tools  and 
tlic  oi;her  things  airectly  iiccussar}-  to  carry  on  the  eiii-cr- 
prise.  So  the  capitalistic  system  does  not  mean  t'iiere  is 
capital  Involved.  It  m'eans  that  capital  is  organized  and 
managed  in  .a  certain  w^ay. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  some  of  the  doctrines 
which  are  essentials  of  capitahsm,  and  wdioever  has  any 
slhare  in  any  business  on  the  capitalistic  plan  is  in  some 
way  or  other  related  to  some  of  these  doctrines  which 
lie  at  t'he  base  of  the  capitalistic  organization. 

The  first  of  these  is  this:  Labor  is  a  thing,  a  commod- 
ity, to  be  bought  and  sold  in  the  market,  like  any  other  ar- 
ticle in  the  market. 

Second,  That  the  ruling  motive  in  business  is  the 
largest  possible  return  for  the  smallest  possible  expendi- 
ture. 

Third,  That  in  this  expenditure  nothing  is  counted  as 
expended  except  what  can  be  written  into  the  ledger  ac- 
count. 

Fourth,  That  nothing  is  to  be  counted  as  a  return  ex- 
cept what  can  be  made  to  appear  on  the  other  side  of  the 
same  ledger  account. 

I  want  to  say  Hhese  four  things  over  again,  for  I  want 
you  to  have  them  in  mind,  and  not  to  forget  tliem  as  I  go 
on  with  the  discussion.  Labor  is  a  commodity.  The  rul- 
ing motive  in  business  is  the  largest  possible  return  for  the 
smiallest  possible  expenditure.  In  thLs  expenditure  noth- 
ing is  counted  as  expended  except  What  can  be  written, 
into  the  ledger  account.  Nothing  is  to  be  counted  as  a 
return  except  w^-hat  can  be  made  to  appear  on  l^ie  other 
side  of  the  same  ledger  account. 

Novv%  to  all  this  I  object,  and, my  objections  are  four, 
and  they  run  in  tihis  way. 

First,  Labor  is  not  a  thin^g.  Labor  is  human  life.  La- 
bor is  not  a  commodity.  Labor  is  a  living,  acting,  think- 
ing, striving  man.  Labor  is  not  a  thing.  It  is  a  human 
life.  Labor  cannot  be  bought  and  «old,  except  at  the  same 
time  you  buy  and  sell  labor  you  buy  and  sell  the  man  who 
does  t!he  labor.  I  want  to  say  that  over  again.  Labor  is 
not  a  thing,  it  is  .human  life.    Labor  can.not  be  bought  and 


THE    DEPARTMENT     STORE.  I43 

sold,  except  at  the  same  time  you  buy  and  sell  fhe  man 
whH3  does  the  labor. 

Second,  Business  is  a  kind  of  labor.  It  is  a  part  of 
life.  Its  motive  must  not  be  something  apart  from  life, 
but  it  must  be  the  best  motive  leading  to  the  best  life. 

Third,  The  greatest  gifts,  the  worthiest  expenditures 
cannot  be  shown  on  any  ledger  account. 

Fourt'h,  Neither  can  the  best  returns  for  the  best  hu- 
man endeavor  be  made  to  appear  on  either  side  of  any 
ledger. 

I  want  to  read  to  you  a  few  words  from  a  little  book, 
*'The  Product-Sharing  Milage."  This  book  is  a  stand- 
ard authority  with  me.  I  wrote  it  myself.  I  want  you  to 
listen  to  some  of  these  paragraphs.  Here  they  are:  "In 
attempting  this  discussion  it  is  assumed  that  men  are 
better  than  things.  Things  are  valuable  only  as  they 
minister  to  the  wants  of  men.  This  is  true,  whether  the 
thing  is  an  instrument,  as  an  ax  or  a  dollar,  or  it  is' true 
alike  if  it  be  an  institution,  as  a  school  or  a  board  of  trade. 
It  is  assumed  that  all  men  are  men,  and  that  any  man  is 
of  more  value  than  any  thing."  Of  course,  that  is  a  pretty 
difficult  thing  to  believe.  Wq  are  sacrificing  men  every 
hour  in  order  to  get  more  things.  What  doth  it  profit  a 
man  if  he  gain  all  the  street  railways  in  Chicago?  What 
doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  all  the  tall  buildings  in 
Chicago?  \Miat  doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he  get  a  long 
bank  account,  though  any  other  man  should  starve  for 
the  want  of  it?  What  doth  it  profit  a  man,  no  matter  how 
many  things  he  owns  and  controls — if  he  lose  his  own  life? 
What  doth  it  profit  a  man  if  in  gaining  things  he  sacri- 
fices, not  his  own  life,  but  the  life  of  a  brother?  Here  is 
some  more  from  the  book:  *Tt  is  assumed  that  all  men 
are  men,  and  that  any  man  is  of  more  value  than  any 
thing.  The  only  proper  test  of  the  value  of  any  social  or 
industrial  usage  or  institution  is  its  effects  on  men,  on  all 
men.  If  its  effects  are  injurious  on  the  physical  and 
moral  well-being  of  the  men  who  must  have  to  do  with 
it,  then  it  can  have  no  right  to  exist.  That  it  increases 
the  products  of  labor  and  builds  great  fortunes  cannot 
be  considered,  if  it  destroys  men.    The  proudest  fortune 


144  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

is  not  so  valuable  as  is  the  humblest  man.  No  increase 
in  the  worth  of  products  can  justify  a  decrease  in  the 
v^^orth  of  men.  The  purpose  of  industrial  and  commer- 
cial org-anization  should  not  be  to  produce  the  greatest 
wealth  for  the  few,  or  for  the  many.  It  should  be  to  so 
provide  for  the  physical  life  as  to  make  possible  for  all  an' 
intellectual  and  moral  life  of  the  highest  order.  Leisure 
and  opportunity  for  study  and  for  social  enjoyments  are 
neces'sary  for  such  an  intellectual  and  moral  life,  and  are 
th.erefore  worthier  objects,  both  for  the  individual  and 
for  society,  than  extensive  possessions-  or  elegant  ap- 
pointments. The  merits  of  the  various  methods  by  which 
the  world's  work  has  been  undertaken  and  its  products 
divided  must  not  be  determined  by  a  comparison  of  the 
number  of  bushelsi,  yards,  or  pounds'  produced  by  each, 
but  solely  by  their  effects  on  all  the  men  who  have  borne 
the  burdens  under  them." 

It  is  with  this  standard  in  mind  that  we  must  study 
the  g^reat  economic  problems.  It  is  measured  up  against 
this  ideal  that  the  railway,  the  private  corporation  render- 
ing a  public  service,  the  gold  standard,  bimetallism,  the 
tariff,  the  school  system,  every  other  institution  must 
stand  or  fall.  If  it  contributes  to  giving  us  a  wiser,  better, 
truer,  stronger,  nobler  human  life,  then  it  may  stay. 
.Otherwise,  it  has-  no  right  to  be. 

I  want  you  to  place  the  department  store  down  in  the 
midst  of  these  considerations,  and  by  this  line  of  thought 
determine  whether  it  shall  be  with  us  and  remain  with 
us,  or  whether  we  shall  derive  out  of  it  something  better 
that  shall  be  desirable,  or  shall  we  try  to  destroy  it  and 
attempt  to  turn  back  to  something  we  did  have,  but  which 
is  now  so  speedily  passing  away. 

The  department  store  involves  the  whole  question  of 
labor-saving  machinery.  If  you  will  stop  but  for  a  mo- 
ment and  raise  the  question  of  whether  labor-saving  ma- 
chinery is  a  blessing  or  a  curs/e,  if  you  will  satisfy  your- 
selves on  that  question,  you  will  have  gotten  very  closely 
to  the  kernel  of  this  whole  controversy  about  the  depart- 
ment store. 

Years  ago  the  time  was  when  men  made  their  living 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE.  I45 

by  main  strength,  by  which  we  mean  mainly  by  strength. 
The  tools  of  industry  were  simple,  inexpensive,  rude. 
Each  man  sowed  in  his  own  field  with  his  own  hands, 
and  gathered  with  the  sickle  his  own  harvest,  threshed  it 
with  his  own  flail,  winnowed  it  in  his  own  fan,  and  ground 
it  with  his  own  hand  mill,  baked  it  in  his  own  oven,  and 
consum-ed  it  with  his  own  family.  So  in  the  same  way 
with  regard  to  food,  and  fuel,  and  shelter,  and  clothing. 
All  of  the  conveniences  and  comforts  of  life  that  men  were 
permitted  to  possess  and  to  enjoy  were  produced  with 
the  simplest  and  the  rudest  kind  of  machinerj-  and  the 
hardest  and  most  non-productive  kind  of  toil. 

But  by  and  by  the  rude  tool  grew  into  a  machine. 
By  and  by  that  division  of  each  man  among  a  dozen  em- 
ployments was  changed  for  the  division  of  each  employ- 
ment among  a  hundred  men.  Instead  of  the  same  man 
raising  the  calf,  making  shoes  out  of  his  skin  and  wear- 
ing out  the  shoes  on  his  own  feet,  it  took  fifty-seven  men 
to  make  the  shoes  after  the  skin  was  off  the  calf  and  had 
passed  the  tannery.  The  dividing  of  the  man  up  among 
a  dozen  different  employments  was  succeeded  by  dividing 
each  employment  among  a  hundred  men;  the  result  was 
that  each  man  working  at  one  simple  thing  with  a  ma- 
chin-e  doing  most  of  the  work  required  a  great  deal  of 
skill  on  the  part  of  the  man  who  made  the  machine,  but 
g:ave  us  a  condition  where  child  labor,  and  woman's  la- 
bor, and  the  cheapest  labor,  and  the  most  inefficient  labor, 
could  stand  by  the  side  of  the  machine  and  turn  a  crank, 
and  leave  in  the  rear  most  skilled  members  of  society. 

When  the  machine  came  into  existence  along  the  line 
of  manufactures  capitalism  came  into  existen<:e  at  the 
same  time.  In  the  begimiing  a  man  owned  his  raw  mate- 
rials, owned  his  tools,  owned  his  shop,  owned  himself, 
used  his  raw  materials  with  his  own  tools  and  labor  to 
produce  the  things  he  would  use  in  his  own  family.  There 
was  capital  in  the  tools,  but  there  was  no  capitalist  in 
control  of  the  tools  separate  from  the  laborer.  There 
was  no  capitalism.  There  was  no  definite  class  of  men 
getting  dividends  from  the  ownership  of  the  tools.  The 
man  who  owned  the  tools  used  the  tools,  and  the  man  who 


146  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

produced  the  product  him&elf  us-ed  the  product.  But 
when  the  machine  canine,  instead  of  one  man  owning  all 
the  m-achines,  required  for  his  employment,  it  took  a 
dozen  men  to  own  or  operate  one  machine.  No  one 
worker  could  hope  to  be  an  owner.  Each  machine  not 
only  becam'e  so  expensive  no  single  worker  could  buy  it, 
but  m'ost  machines  w^ere  so  constructed  that  no  one  man- 
could  operate  them.  One  man  came  to  own  the 
machinery,  and  another  company  of  men  to  do 
the  work.  They  w^ere  paid  wages,  and  surrendered 
any  claim  on  the  product.  The  man  who  owned  the  ma- 
chine had  full  authority  to  say  whether  the  machine 
should  work  or  not,  and  so  could  say  whether  the  laborer 
should  work  or  not.  And  thus  he  who  owned  the  ma- 
chine owned  the  labor,  owned  the  laborer. 

When  we  turned  in  on  the  line  of  putting  the  big  ma- 
chines together  very  soon  we  struck  the  big  shop.  As  soon 
as  the  great  factory  town  commenced  to  grow,  the  coun- 
try village  commenced  to  disappear.  Mr.  Smalley  said, 
"The  country  village  has  practically  disappeared."  The 
old  manufacturing  center  out  on  the  country  side,  with 
the  shop  over  there,  the  small  store  over  there,  the  har- 
ness shop  over  there,  vv^ith  all  these  things-  gathered  iu'  a 
single  village,  has  disappeared  and  gone.  Each  is  va- 
cated and  deserted,  the  shingles  are  ofif  the  old  house, 
and  the  grass  is  growing  in  the  front  yard.  Once  men, 
and  women,  and  children  lived,  and  had  their  hopes,  and 
fears,  and  ambitions-,  and  attachmients  out  in  the  little 
town,  but  the  little  town  has  gone,  the  small  employment 
is  gone,  the  father  is  an  employe  in  the  shop  when  the 
shop  runs,  and  he  tramps,  waiting  for  the  return  of  pros- 
perity, when  the  shop  shuts  down. 

You  small  mierchants  are  having  your  business  closed 
out  n-ow,  but  the  toiler  in  manufacturing  enterprises  has 
been  drinking  to  its  dregs  the  same  bitter  draught  that 
is  being  crowded  down  your  throat  for  fifty  years.  This 
is  the  point.  The  small  shop  has  been  doomed,  and  the 
small  manufacturer  has  been  destroyed.  What  destroyed 
him?  Labor-saving  machinery.  Do  not  tell  any  one  I  am 
opposed  to  labor-saving  machinery.     Simply  because  I 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE.  I47 

am  opposed  to  using  gas  to  strangle  sleepers  with,  do  not 
say  I  am  opposed  to  the  proper  use  of  gas.     I  am  op- 
posed to  using  machinery,  simple  or  complex,  great  or 
small,  marvelous  or  rude,  for  the  purpos-e  of  sacrificino- 
the  m-terests  of  my  fellow  men.     These  men  out  in  the 
country  lost  their  employm-ent,  an<i  then  they  had  to  be- 
come employes  in  the  great  shops.    And  when-  they  went 
there  they  said,  "We  can  no  longer  control  the  tools  The 
sh.op  belongs  to  another  man."    They  said,  "The  prod- 
ucts of  our  labor  belong  to  another  company  of  men. 
Ihere  is  no  way  by  which  we  can  have  any  share  in  the 
products  of  human  toil  except  by  the  purchasing  power 
of  our  wages.     Our  share  in  what  our  labor  produces 
must  be  measured  by  what  our  wages  can  buy."     They 
said,  "There  is  a  way  out  for  us  yet.    We  will  combine 
and  organize  a  trades  union,  and  into  that  trades  union 
we  will  get  all  the  men  who  are  doing  this  kind  of  labor. 
We  will  agree  that  either  a  shop  must  shut  up,  or  the 
wages  must  go  up."     They  organized  a  union,  and  the 
great  factory  that  had  destroyed  the  small  factory,  that 
had  taken  the  worker  out  of  the  small  shop,  said,'  "You 
must  not  interfere  with  our  rights."    What  happened? 
Every  small  farmer,  and  small  merchant,  every  big  farmer 
and  every  big  merchant,  took  sides  with  the  big  manu- 
facturer and  helped  to  make  war  on  the  mechanic  whose 
&mall  private  shop  capitalism  had  destroyed. 

My  brother,  if  you  have  a  little  store  some  place  in 
Chicago  I  do  not  want  you  to  be  ofifended.  I  onlv  want 
you  to  remember  that  you  have  been  liattering  yourself 
for  years  that  you  are  a  capitalist,  and  that  your  interests 
lie  on  the  side  of  the  great  corporations.  And  whenever 
there  has  been  a  strike  you  have  said,  "We  capitalists  will 
not  submit  to  it."  \\1iencver  a  new  labor  organization 
has  been  established  you  have  said,  "We  capitalists  can- 
not endure  this."  Whenever  Armour,  and  Pullman,  and 
Rockefeller,  and  Mark  Hanna  have  been  oppressing  the 
men  who  were  helpless  without  the  tools  they  controlled 
you  have  parted  your  hair  in  the  middle,  waxed  your  mus- 
tache, come  home  from  your  rented  store,  with  its  stock 
bought  on  thirty  days'  time,  and  sat  on  the  doorsteps 


14^  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

of  your  rented  house,  and  said  to  every  pass'er-by,  "We 
capitalists,  me  and  Armour,  we  capitalists  will  not  allow 
our  interests  to  be  mt'erfered  with." 

When  the  railway  employes  said,  "You  are  giving  us 
an  extra  hazardous  life,  you  are  killing  more  of  our  mem- 
bers every  year  than  were  slaughtered  in  the  midst  of  the 
battle-fields  of  the  Civil  War,  and  while  you  send  us  out 
into  the  danger,  send  us  out  into  the  night,  send  us  out 
into  the  daylight,  and  out  into  the  sunshine,  and  out  into 
the  storm,  you  must  send  us  there  so  rewarded  that  some 
fair  portion  of  the  wealth  that  our  labor  makes  for  the 
welfare  of  all  shall  com'e  back  to  us  im  the  shape  of  the 
purchasing  power  of  our  wages."  W^hen  the  railway  men 
said,  "We  will  strike,"  you  replied,  "Call  out  the  troops. 
Scatter  the  ugly  crowd.  Turn  loose  the  gatlimg  guns, 
and  let  the  niian'  who  interferes  with  business  get  out  of 
the  way."  I  am  only  calling  your  attention  to  what  you 
have  been  saying,  that  is  all.  But  over  here  onthe  south- 
west side  of  Chicago  the  other  night  was  a  meeting  of  a 
business  men's  association,  gathered  together  in  confer- 
ence with  representatives  of  the  trades  unions.  They 
asked  the  trades  unions  to  combine  with  them  against  the 
department  store.  The  trades  unions  replied,  "Will  you 
enter  v/ith  us  into  a  mutual  arranjgem<ent  that  if  we  will 
combine  with  you  to  fight  the  department'  store,  you  will 
join  with  us  to  sell  only  the  products  of  union  labor?" 
And  the  motion  was  niade  to  that  efifect  and  the  president 
would  not  put  it.  There  was  a  disput/e  over  it,  and  finally 
they  got  the  motion  before  the  house.  They  called  the 
roll  of  two  hundred  names  of  the  small  merchants  of  the 
southwest  portion  of  Chicago,  and  out  of  two  hundred 
names  that  were  called,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  of 
them  sat  quietly  and  refused  to  vote  either  way.  Fifteen 
people  voted  for  the  resolution.  The  president  said,  "This 
seems,  after  all,  to  be  a  meeting  of  trades  unionists." 
These  small  merchants  are  seeing  their  business  taken) 
away  from  them.  Exactly  the  same  processes  that  de- 
stroyed the  small  shop  and  built  the  great  factory  and 
made  the  trades  unions,  the  same  processes  that  left  the 
country  village  deserted  and  desolate,  are  bringing"  ruin 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE.  I49 

to  the  small  stores  of  the  great  cities  and  towns.  They 
are  to  be  left  vacant,  deserted  and  desolate. 

It  was  labor-saving  machinery  that  made  the  trades 
unions  possible.  It  was  labor-saving  niachin'CTy  that  de- 
stroyed the  old  small  shop.  It  is  labor-saving  machinery, 
pure  and  simple,  that  makes  the  department  store  resist- 
less in  its  onslaught  on  the  small  dealer.  When  labor- 
saving  machinery  destroyed  the  small  shop  and  the  small 
worker  robbed  of  his  tools  went  on  a  strike,  you  said, 
"Give  him  the  gatling  gun."  What  shall  we  give  you, 
now  that  the  department  store  is  destroying  your  business, 
if  you  grow  restless  while  you  starve? 

I  am  a  wea^-er  working  at  a  loom ;  I  can  weave  tliree 
yards  of  cloth  in  a  day ;  I  can  weave  eighteen  yards  in  six 
days.  Fifty  years  have  gone  by,  and  I  am  a  new  woman 
made  over  once  more,  and  am  a  weaver  still.  Fifty  years' 
ago  I  eould  weave  eighteen  yards  of  cloth  in  a  week,  now 
on  the  most  recently  invented  looms  I  can)  weave  four 
thousand  and  eight  hundred  yards  in  the  same  time.  By 
my  self  employment  in  my  little  shop  I  could  produce 
eighteen  yards  of  cloth  in  a  week,  but  if  I  am  to  be  a 
weaver  in  the  midst  of  the  roar  and  rattle  of  the  machiner}' 
in  the  great  shops  where  the  average  product  of  each 
worker  shall  be  four  thousand  eight  hundred  yards  in  one 
week,  then  I  must  be  in  the  midst  of  a  great  shop.  I 
must  be  a  member  of  a  great  organization.  The  great 
organization  with  a  great  capital,  with  a  large  number  of 
laborers  under  a  single  roof,  makes  a  single  laborer  pro- 
duce four  thousand  eight  hundred  yards  of  cloth  now, 
where  the  same  laborer  fifty  years  ago  was  able  to  pro- 
duce only  eighteen.  How  can  the  eighteen-  yard  weaver 
stand  up  in  the  face  of  the  factory  so  equipped  and  or- 
ganized that  it  produces  for  each  toiler  four  thousand 
eight  hundred  yards  in  the  same  time?    She  cannot  do  it. 

Is  there  the  same  kind  of  organization  connected  with 
the  department  store?  Yes.  In  order  to  have  a  store 
you  must  have  a  place  to  put  your  goods.  In  Chicago, 
we  will  say,  there  are  ten  thousand  merchants.  Figure 
your  rents  in  any  way  you  can,  the  rents  paid  by  the 
small  dealers  in  Chicago  for  any  single  year  would  build 


130  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

as  big  a  departmient  store  as'  there  is'  im  the  city.  The 
secret  of  the  factory  is  in  its  marvelous  economy.  The 
secret  of  the  departm^ent  store  is  in  itS'  marvelous  econ- 
omy. There  is  not  a  single  out-of-the-way-back-alley 
store  in  Chicago  which  is  not  paying  a  heavier  rent  in/ 
proportion  to  its  business  than  any  department  store  in 
the  city. 

Listen!  The  small  weaver  pushed  her  loom  this  way, 
sent  her  shuttle  through  this  way,  brought  it  back  again, 
beat  the  web  and  woof  together  with  every  thread  put 
through,  and  was  able  to  weave  eighteen  yards  of  cloth 
in  ooe  week.  But  you  come  to  the  factory  where  a  woman 
stands  in  the  midst  of  sixteen  looms  making  revolutions 
so  fast  you  cannot  count  them.  She  just  stands  there 
watching  to  see  if  a  thread  breaks,  which  she  ties.  The 
combination  of  machinery  that  spreads  one  woman's 
work  over  sixteen  automatic  looms  and  sets  her  there 
simply  to  watch  for  a  broken  thread  as  conipared  with 
the  one  worker  on  the  one  machine  doing  all  the  work 
herself  makes  the  difference  between  the  large  product 
and  the  small. 

Take  another  step.  Not  only  is  that  true  in  the  saving 
of  rents,  but  in  advertising.  You  are  living  in  the  twenty- 
third  precinct  of  the  nine  hundred  thirty-second  ward. 
You  have  a  local  paper  out  there  that  very  few  of  your 
neighbors  read.  If  you  advertise  in  it,  the  rates  are  high, 
and  but  few  will  read  it.  If  you  were  to  advertise  in  the 
great  dailies,  take  any  of  these  large  papers  with  a  hun- 
dred thousand  circulation;  suppose  your  little  store  in 
the  out-of-the-way  corner  of  the  city  should  advertise 
in  it.  There  is  no  way  by  which  the  people  could  get 
where  you  are,  and  when  they  got  there  they  could  not 
buy  what  they  wanted.  A  department  store  can  put  a 
page  in  any  daily  paper,  and  its  advertising  in  proportion 
to  the  business  that  is  reached  is  not  the  smallest  fraction 
as  compared  with  the  out-of-the-way  store  that  simply 
sends  a  boy  about  the  streets  distributing  hand  bills. 

Again,  the  man  who  runs  a  business  of  his  own  must 
be  responsible.  He  must  know  how  to  buy,  he  must 
know  what  to  buy.    He  must  have  the  good  will  of  the 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE.  15I 

people.  He  must  know  how  to  steer  clear  of  bad  bills. 
What  about  the  department  store?  One  buyer,  or  one 
buyer  in  a  group  of  departments',  answers*  for  th-em  all. 
You,  buy  a  little  of  this,  and  a  little  of  the  other.  They 
go  to  the  manufacturer  and  buy  all  he  has.  As  to  buying, 
it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  the  small  dealer  to  com- 
]^are  at  all  with  the  advantages  of  the  great  store,  with 
its  trained  buyers  wdth  no  other  duties  than  simply  to 
keep  track  of  the  m'arkets. 

Again,  in  the  matter  of  waiting  on  the  customers.  In 
the  small  store  the  man  who  is  able  to  buy  must  put  in 
his  time  doing  up  small  bundles.  The  man  who  is  able 
to  carry  the  responsibility  of  a  great  business  must  waste 
his  ene'rgies  doing  the  tasks  of  an  errand  boy.  There  is 
TiO  possibility  of  dividmg  the  business  of  a  man  when 
there  is  only  one  man  in  the  business.  In  the  department 
store  one  man  trained  as  a  buyer  buys  for  a  hundred  sales- 
men. The  hundred  salesmen,  incapable  of  doing  the 
work  of  a  buyer,  and  only  able  to  read  the  tag  that  is  on 
the  goods — that  is  all  they  need  to  know — and  with  nim- 
ble fingers  be  able  to  tie  up  the  goods,  and  reach  over  and 
come  back  again,  and  turn  them  over  and  turn  back,  and 
reach  over  and  come  back  some  more,  and  then  reach 
over  and  come  back  some  more — they  do  not  even  need 
to  know  how  to  do  up  a  bundle.  They  send  the  goods 
around  to  a  man  who  makes  up  the  bundles.  They  keep 
him  out  of  sight.  He  just  stands  there  and  wraps,  and 
wraps,  and  wraps — you  see  how^  it  works. 

Go  through  the' business  in  ever}-  line;  there  is  not 
one  single  place  where  the  economies  of  business  are  not 
all  on  the  side  of  the  department  store. 

The  customers  of  the  small  store  are  all  your  neigh- 
bors and  friends.  You  meet  them  in  various  places.  You 
belong  to  the  same  club.  One  of  them  comes  around 
and  asks  you  to  loan  him  some  goods  until  he  can  pay 
for  them.  You  will  either  go  out  of  business  with  that 
man,  or  you  will  acconmiodate  him.  If  you  do,  you  wih 
go  out  of  business.  If  you  do  not  you  will  go  out.  There 
is  no  question  about  it'  There  are  any  number  of  people 
that  are  buving  of  their  local  merchant  when  thev  want 


152  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS 

credit,  and  are  buying  down  town  when  they  have  cash. 
That  is  the  situation.  A  large  estabHshniient  can  &ell 
cheaply,  and  the  large  establishni'ent  will  get  the  cash, 
aiTsd  you  will  get  the  credit  if  you  get  anything.  You  are 
broken  any  way.  Think  of  a  man  going  down  to  a  de^ 
partment  store  and  asking  for  a  dollar's  worth  of  sugar 
on  time.  But  the  credit  business  itself  is'  now  in  the  de- 
partment store  when  it  is  worth  having  at  all.  There  it 
is.  systematized.  You  are  selling  goodsi;  you  have  sugar, 
potatoes,  soap,  vinegar  and  tea  for  sale.  You  are  selling 
a  little  of  this,  and  a  little  of  that,  and  among  other  things', 
a  man  com'es'  in  and  asks  you  to  loan  him  an  account. 
You  loam  him  the  account  because  if  you  do  not,  by  and 
by  you  will  lose  your  trade,  lose  your  business,  and  you 
guess  whether  he  will  pay  you  and  act  on  the  guess.  But 
a  man  goesi  over  to  a  department  store  where  credit  is 
given  and  as'ks  for  credit.  He  is  referred  to  the  credit 
man.  The  credit  man  has  every  means  of  informing  him- 
self regarding  the  applicant.  He  takes'  his  references. 
He  learns  where  he  i&  employed.  He  knows  what  his 
incom'C  is,  and  when  it  reaches'  him'.  He  has  at  his  dis- 
posal a  constable,  a  justice,  and  am  auctioneer.  He 
knows  how  to  learn  all  about  you,  how  to  keep  track  of 
you  all  the  timie,  and  how  to  make  you  pay  him  if  you 
are  able  to  do  so,  and  he  will  not  give  you  credit  if  you 
are  not  able  to  do  so.  The  risks  of  credit  are  simply  or- 
ganized out  of  the  credit  business.  The  cost  of  the  or- 
ganization is  added  to  the  price  of  the  goods,  and  the  trade 
goes  merrily  on.  A  single  small  dealer  cannot  organize 
credit.  A  single  small  dealer  cannot  organize  a  cash  busi- 
ness. A  single  small  dealer  cannot  save  on  nents.  He 
must  put  the  best  ability  that  money  will  buy  for  him  to 
doing  the  simplest  work  that  the  poorest  paid  laborer 
will  perform  just  as  well.  The  triumph  of  the  department 
store  is  the  triumph  of  organization,  and  organization  is 
machinery.  It  is  the  problem  of  labor-saving  machinery 
over  again. 

But  the  wrongs  of  the  deparbm^'nt .  store  are  not  in 
the  fact  that  its  more  perfect  organization  makes  the  de^ 
strurtioiT  of  the  sm'all  shop  certain.    Tt  is  that  its  organiza- 


THli    DEPARTMEl^T    STORE.  1^3 

lion/  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  not  omly  dcs'troys  the  small 
shop  outside,  but  ruins  the  new  workers  within^  its  walls 

as  well. 

Joseph  Cook  has  said  a  great  many  foolish  thui'gs, 
1)ut  he  once  said,  "That  a  few  years  n:ore  of  the  New  En- 
gland factory  system  would  put  Lazarus  and  Dives  into 
New  England,  and  Lazarus  would  be  outside  of  Dives' 
gate  and  his  body  would  be  covered  with  sores.'  That, 
too,  is  the  curse  of  the  department  store. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  shoemaker  lived  with  his  family 
about  him.  He  had  his  children,  hisi  home,  his  father  and 
mother,.all  the  associations  and  benefits  and  blessings  of 
social  and  domestic  life  w^ere  his. 

A  printer  and  publisher  worked  im  his  owm  shop,  and 
circulated  his  information  among  his  own  friends.  There 
is  nothing  more  pitiful  in  'all  the  history  of  the  human 
race  than  the  terrible  way  in  which  the  workers  have  been 
injured,  their  personal  habitS'  made  vicious,  true  manhood 
degraded,  and  damned,  and  ruined  by  this  damnable  fac- 
tory svstem,  that  buys  a  man  for  the  smallest  wages  and 
works' him  for  the  largest  returns,  and  gives  him  the  gar- 
ret and  the  cellar  for  his  home.  It  overw^orks  him  when 
h-e  works,  and  starves  him  w-hen  he  doesn't  w^ork.  It 
leaves  him  here  to-day.  there  to-morrow,  and  somewhere 
else  the  next  dav.  The  factory  system  which  goes  into 
the  market  and  buys  labor  for  the  smallest  price  that  the 
most  unfortunate  man  will  consenti  to  take,  is  putting  a 
premium  on  misfortune.  It  takes  the  most  helpless  man. 
and  turns  adrift  the  man  with  a  bank  account  until  the 
bank  account  is  gone,  and  he  begs,  and  tramps,  and  like 
the  other,  is  helpless,  too.  There  is  nothing  in  the  long 
line  of  the  industrial  war  of  the  world  that  is  more  terrible 
than  the  bad  habits,  bad  life,  bad  character,  of  these  help- 
less workers.  But  how  can  the  manufacturing  working- 
man  be  anything  else?  Think  of  the  impossibility  of  his 
earning  a  home  that  he  may  stay  where  his  children  ami 
his  grandchildren  are  to  stay  after  him,  that  the  associa- 
tions of  his  childhood  may  be  the  associations  of  his 
manhood.  That  the  generation  behind  him  and  the  gen- 
eration after  him  may  join  hands  to  touch  the  springs 


154  EVOLUTIONARY    I'OLITICS. 

of  the  highest  Hie  to  his  last  hour.  But  the  manufacturing 
laborer  has  his  hon^e  here  to-day,  and  is  there  to-morrow. 
How  many  of  the  printers,  bricklayers,  carpenters,  how 
many  of  the  nuen  ini  the  trades  have  lived  in  many,  many 
different  towns!  A  railroad  employe  builds  a  little  house, 
gets  it  half  paid  for,  (when  he  has  an  assignment  a  hun- 
dred miles-  away,  and  becomes^  a  stranger  among  stran- 
gers once  more.  The  pitiless-  destruction  of  the  noblest 
sentiments  and  the  holiest  ambitions  that  a  toiler  ever 
■■ad  in  his  heart,  by  the  system  under  which  he  toils  that 
bu3^'s  a  man  for  the  cheapest  price  he  can  be  bought  for 
and  grinds  the  life  out  of  him  for  the  largest  returns  that 
can  be  m'easured  in  dollars,  that  system*  is  responsible  for 
]'iis  ruini.  That  is  capitalism.  That  is  the  system  of  the 
factory  town.  That  is  the  system  of  the  departm-ent  store. 
I  shall  speak  slowly,  but  I  shall  speak  in  earnest.  I  stand ' 
here  this,  afternooni  and  declare  that  of  all  the  brothels 
that  have  misled  girls',  of  all  the  infamies  that  have  black- 
ened humian  character,  of  all  the  sources  that  have  helped 
to  damn  the  human  race,  there  has  been  no  power  with  ' 
a  grip  more  strong  and  a  heart  more  pitiless  than  the  de- 
partment store. 

You  lived  in  your  own  store.  The  store  room  was 
below,  and  bhe  family  room  was  upstairs.  From  each 
day's  business  you  gathered  in  the  profits  w^ith  which  you 
provided  your  daily  bread.  The  children  came  and  went, 
the  high  school  was  a  little  w^ay  ofif,  the  boys  and  girls 
grew  to  strength,  and  responsibility.  Now  your  store 
room  is  vacant;  your  business'  has  gone.  You  settled  by 
compromise  when  the  sherifif  took  possession  of  your 
place.  You  came  to  the  departnuent  store  and  asked  for  a 
job.  They  did  not  have  anything  that  so  expensive  a 
man  as  you  could  undertake  to  do.  You  went  on  the 
street  to  look  for  employmenit  somewhere  else,  and  your 
little  boy  a  dozen  years  old  got  a  job  in  the  department 
store.  Your  little  girl  got  a  job  in  the  department  store, 
and  they  together  come  and  go  under  the  poisoned  breath 
of  a  commercial  life  which  measures  their  strength,  their 
labor,  their  very  virtue  by  the  dollars  which  are  necessary 
to  buy  them;  a  life  which  knows  no  value  in  your  children 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE. 


155 


which  money  cannot  buy  when,  it  is  wanted,  or  pay  for 
when  it  is  lost. 

Now,  what  shall  we  do  about  it?  What  shall  we  do 
about  it?  Listen  a  minrute!  I  will  speak  in  defense  of 
the  trades  unions'  as  long  as  I  have  breath  to  speak.  I  will 
speak  in  defens-e  of  the  small  dealer  as  against  the  depart- 
ment store  as  long  as  I  hav€  breath  to  speak  for  him. 
Listen  further!  The  trades  union  has  been  fighting  a 
losing  battle  for  fifty  years.  Listen!  There  is  no  legis- 
lation that  can  be  put  upon  the  statutes;  there  are\o 
courts  that  can  be  established;  there  are  no  refonn  ad- 
ministrations that  can  be  put  in  power  that  shall  be  able 
to  turn  back  the  tide  which  has  destroyed  the  small  mver- 
chant  and  put  the  great  store  in  his  place.  1  do  not  say 
that  because  I  love  the  department  store.  I  do  not  say 
what  I  have  said  about  trades  unions  because  I  am  sidinfg 
with  the  great  manufacturer.  I  am  saying  it  because  I 
want  the  small  merchant  to  know  the  truth,  and  to  know 
it  all.  I  will  stand  here  to-day,  and  I  say  it  deliberately, 
to  the  mam  who  feels  his  business  going,^  and  going,  and 
going,  and  sees  his  customers-  going  to  the  department 
store,  you  have  no  worse  enemy  than  the  man  who  comes 
and  proposes  to  tax  the  little  money  you  have  left  to  or- 
ganize an  army  to  fight  the  department  store,  for  if  he 
was  a  student  of  this  question  he  would  know  that  that 
warfare  is  impossible  of  victory. 

I  am  not  opposed  to  labor-saving  machiner}- ,  whether 
it  shows  itself  in  a  great  steel  plant,  or  shows  itself  in  a 
great  department  store.  When  I  first  studied  this  ques- 
tion, some  ten  years  ago,  it  was  in  Philadelphia.  I  went 
to  Philadelphia,  and,  like  other  visitors,  I  went  to  the 
park,  I  went  to  Benjamin  Franklin's  tomb,  to  Independ- 
ence Hall,  and  I  went  to  John  Wanamaker's.  I  walked 
through  the  open  space  in  John  Wanamaker's  great  store. 
I  went  up  the  stories  piled  one  above  the  other.  I  looked 
over  the  arrangement  of  the  different  lines  of  business.  I 
tried  to  make  some  inquiry  with  regard  to  the  processes 
by  which  John  \\'anamaker  had  become  so  strong.  I 
learned  that  side  by  side  with  Wanamaker's  agents  who 
had  built  that  great  establishment,  and  filled  it  with  goods 


156  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

and  organized,  under  his  management,  the  great  company 
of  toilers,  there  was  another  company  of  men  now  penni- 
less ;  that  every  brick  in'  the  walls  of  that  great  structure, 
every  appointment  along  every  one  of  its  aisles,  every 
pile  of  goods  that  stood  there,  was  met  with  the  tears 
of  the  broken-hearted  competitors  who  had  beetii  ruined 
in  their  business  to  make  John  Wanamaker.  I  passed 
through,  and  around,  and  through  again,  and  stood  at 
the  door  wondering  at  the  throngs  as  they  would  come 
and  go.  I  went  from  there  to  Brooklyn,  and  New  York, 
and  everywhere  I  was^  told  by  the  meni  of  whom  I  made 
inquiry  that  these  great  stores,  that  stood  story  upon, 
story  up  into  the  sky  and  down  into  the  soil,  and  were 
sending  out  their  advertising  far  and  near,  bringing  the 
buyers  from  all  portions'  of  the  city  and  country,  were 
simply  building  their  great  business  by  taking  it  away 
from  the  small  dealers  everywhere.  And  yet  absolutely 
it  all  involves  the  saving  of  labor.  And  whatsoever  will 
save  one  hour  of  toil,  w^iatsoever  will  make  one  burdem 
lighter,  whatsoever  will  make  human  comfort  demand 
less  of  human  endurance,  that  is  a  good  thing,  and  that 
is  to  be  welconned. 

The  McCormick  reaper  has  come,  the  Deering  binder 
is  here.  Improved  machinery  in  agriculture  has'  come, 
and  it  has  come  to  stay.  The  machine  by  which  typeset- 
ting has  turned  the  typesetter  out  of  a  job  has  come  to 
stay.  It  has  resulted  in  destroying  the  interests  of  the 
worker.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  McCormick  reaper. 
It  is  not  the  fault  of  electricity.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  the 
invention.  It  is  the  fault  of  the  people.  We  do  not  know 
how  to  use  these  modern  devices,  and  we  use  them  for 
our  destruction.  The  city  of  Chicago  sends,  water  through 
its  own  water  mains'  for  the  refreshment  of  its  own  peo- 
ple. The  people  will  do  the  wisest  thing  when  they  take 
possession  of  their  own  streets  and  upon  them  place  their 
own  tracks,  and  man  them  with  their  own  employes,  but 
for  the  mutual  and  equal  benefit  of  every  one  of  us,  not 
for  the  special  private  profit  of  any  share  of  us'. 

Ruin  has  come  to  the  small  shop.  The  farmer  and 
merchant  are  going  to  fall  in  line.    They  will  have  visited 


THE     DEPARTMENT     STORE.  157 

on  them  the  same  desolation  and  ruin  that  has  come  to 
the  small  manufacturer,  or  they  will  combine  with  the 
small  manufacturer,  and  instead  of  trying  to  destroy  the 
department  store,  will,  by  the  united  strength  of  the  peo- 
ple, build  a  public  market  for  the  benefit  of  us  all,  larger, 
and  stronger,  and  better  than  the  department  store,  and 
with  which  the  department  store  can  never  compete. 

The  only  way  to  beat  the  private  monopoly  in  the 
street  railways  is'  for  the  public  to  go  into  the  business. 
The  only  way  to  prevent  monopoly  in  the  great  factory  is 
for  the  public  to  go  into  the  business.    The  public  shop 
where  everv  man  may  toil,  not  for  a  share,  but  for  all  of 
the  products  of  his  labor,  will  free  forever  the  laborer  from 
the  oppression  of  the  private  employer.     The  only  way 
for  the  small  merchant  to  beat  the  department  store  is 
to  stop  trying  to  save  himself  while  he  consents  to  the 
ruin  of  the  manufacturing  workingman  and  the  farm-er. 
Let  it  be  said,  once  for  all,  ther-e  is  absolutely  no  way  by 
which  you  can  save  yourself  and  not  at  the  same  time  help 
to  save  others.    Work  on,  if  you  will,  trying  to  build  your 
little  business  for  the  profit  of  your  own,  and  both  you 
and  yours  must  come  to  rliin.    Stop  tn'ing  to  kill  the  de- 
partment store  so  that  you  again  can  make  your  neigh- 
bors pav  you  more  for  inf-erior  goods  to  the  injury  of  your 
neighbor' and  for  vour  selfish  profit.     Join  rather  in  a 
tight  for  a  public  market  greater,  better,  stronger  than 
the  department  store  itself,  but  in  which  the  benefit  shall 
he  mutual  and  equal  for  every  one  of  us. 

The  private  corporation  cannot  stand  when  the  public 
its.elf  will  go  into  the  street  railway  business.  The  private 
factory  cannot  endure  the  competition  of  the  public  shop. 
The  department  store  cannot,  neither  can  your  little  store, 
stand  for  an  hour  in  the  face  of  a  public  market.  \\  hich 
will  you  do,  join  in  the  effort  for  the  co-operative  organi- 
zation of  the  market,  or  ha\'%  the  sheriff  take  charge  of 
your  business? 

Capitalism  declares  that  labor  is  a  thing,  a  commodity. 
Co-operation  in-sists  that  the  laborer  is  a  man,  and  that 
the  whole  industrial  question  is  a  problem  of  persons,  not 
a  question  of  things.     Capitalism  thrives  on  ignorance, 


158  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

profits  most  from  those  most  easily  deceived.  Co-opera- 
tion depends  on  intelligence,  can.  only  interest  those  who 
can  understand.  Capitalism  counts  nothing  as  lost  or 
gained  which  does  not  appear  on  its  ledger.  Co-opera- 
tion knows  that  even  the  ledger,  as  all  things  else,  de- 
pends on  intellectual  and  social  forces  which  ledgers  can^ 
not  count  and  dollars  cannot  buy.  Capitalism  ruins  in 
mind  or  heart  or  purse  whoever  comes  under  its  power. 
But  co-operative  enterprises  are  winning  their  way.  The 
co-operative  societies  of  Great  Britain  are  the  most  mim.er- 
ous  and  the  most  prosperous  retailers  in  the  realm.  The 
public  market,  or  the  co-operative  store,  mutual  for  all 
who  will  join  in  its  benefits,  the  department  store  cannot 
destroy.  And  in  these  stores  young  children  will  not  be 
ofifered  to  the  Moloch  of  Greed,  but  full-grown  and  com- 
petent men  will  be  doing  a  man's  work  for  a  man's  share 
in  the  products  of  his  labor. 

David  Swing  said  a  little  while  before  he  died,  with 
music  that  is  in  strange  discord  with  the  tin  whistle 
which  blows  itself  on  his  deserted  platform,  David  Swing 
said  a  little  while  before  his  death,  "The  time  is  coming, 
and  coming  soon,  when  all  men  will  dig  their  living  out 
of  the  ground,  or  they  will  lie  down^  under  the  ground." 
I  have  this  to  say  to  the  small  merchant,  and  the  small 
farmer,  and  the  small  manufacturer:  Political  economists 
have  taught  us  all  too  long  that  the  motive  of  industry 
should  be  private  gain.  Political  economists  have  misled 
the  thought  and  heart  of  manhood  too  many  years  al- 
ready. For  whatever  institution  is  to  exist  here  is  to  be 
here  because  it  can  bless,  and  not  because  it  will  curse. 
Because  it  will  give  us  truer,  stronger,  purer,  better  men 
than  can  be  gotten  any  other  way.  Whatever  institution 
stands  across  the  pathway  of  the  hig-hest  comfort,  of  the 
most  splendid  achievements  for  society  must  move  out 
and  get  out  and  stay  out,  for  by  the  might  of  the  eternal 
God  who  made  us,  the  earth  is  His,  and  the  fullness  there- 
of, and  v/e  will  have  it  for  the  benefit  of  all  His  children. 
The  weakest  and  the  strongest  shall  share  and  share  alike 
at  the  fountain  of  His  bounties. 


EDUCATIONAL  ENDOWMENTS  AND   INDUS- 
TRIAL BONDAGE. 

Educational  endowments  are  funds  given  to  the 
schools  not  for  the  purpose  of  paying  current  expenses, 
the  construction  of  buildings,  or  for  providing  the  ap- 
paratus. Endowments  are  fimds  given  to  the  schools  the 
interest  on  which,  only,  is  to  be  used  for  the  payment  of 
current  expenses,  such  as  teachers'  salaries,  fuel  and  the 
like.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  hour's  discussion  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  relation  of  these  funds  to  the  question  of  the 
higher  education,  but  especially  their  relations  to  the  in- 
dustrial classes,  who  by  their  poverty  are  excluded  from 
the  advantages  of  the  schools,  and  who  by  the  system  of 
endowments  are  required,  through  payments  of  interest 
on  college  funds,  to  support  the  schools,  of  the  benefits  of 
which  they  can  have  no  share. 

I  am  ready  to  admit  that  when  these  endowments  were 
first  undertaken,  say  a  thousand  years  ago,  there  were 
good  reasons,  inherent  in  the  industrial  situation,  for 
their  existence.  It  was  then  very  difficult  to  make  a  liv- 
ing. I  mean,  the  processes  by  which  the  necessities  of 
life  were  provided  w^ere  difificult,  and  the  hours  of  labor 
necessary  to  provide  for  one's  comfortable  existence  were 
necessarily  long  and  toilsome.  Then  a  woman  working 
twelve  hours  a  day  could  weave  but  eighteen  yards  of 
cloth  in  a  week.  The  soil  was  turned  with  a  wooden  plow, 
or  more  frequently  a  spade.  The  planting,  cultivating 
and  harvesting  was  all  done  with  the  rudest  tools.  The 
grain  was  gathered  with  a  sickle,  it  was  threshed  with  a 
flail,  it  was  winnowed  with  a  fan,  it  was  ground  with  a 
hand  mill.  A  fairly  comfortable  provision  for  one's  phy- 
sical existence  involved  a  heavy  task  upon  his  physical 

IS9 


l6o  EVOLUtiONARV    POLITICS. 

endurance.  If  the  higher  education  was  to  be  undertaken,, 
if  the  benefits  to  society  to  be  secured  by  at  least  a  por- 
tion of  the  community  having  the  opportunities  for  study 
were  to  be  obtained,  then  the  leisure  of  the  few  could 
only  be  provided  by  the  longer  hours  of  labor  for  the 
many. 

But  there  was  another  reason  more  potent,  and  for 
which  no  generous  impulse  can  find  a  possible  apology. 
When  the  schools  were  established,  when  the  ancient  uni- 
versity, which  has  grown  to  be  a  modern  university,  first 
came  into  being,  the  feudal  system  was  in  force.  When 
the  parish  school,  or  the  cathedral  school  grew  into  an  in- 
stitution for  the  higher  learning  there  were  the  castle,  the 
drawbridge,  the  knight  errant,  the  arrogance  of  the  no- 
bility, the  humiliation  of  the  toiler.  Toil  was  the  badge 
of  submission,  the  mark  of  degradation,  while  the  pro- 
fession of  the  warrior,  the  function  of  government,  the 
right  to  be  at  leisure,  carried  with  it  the  privileges  of  learn- 
ing. Now,  it  occasionally  happened  in  those  days,  as 
now,  that  when  the  Lord  put  a  genius  to  living  in  the 
world  he  did  not  always  make  a  genius  out  of  some  mem- 
ber of  the  wealthy  or  the  privileged  classes.  These  en- 
dowments of  genius  born  out  of  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
struck  the  hovel  of  the  peasant,  and  through  the  ancient 
church  even  the  lowly  were  sometimes  the  beneficiaries  of 
learning.  But  if  the  power  to  see  the  true,  and  the  beauti- 
ful, and  the  good,  and  to  make  these  speak  in  verse,  in 
philosophy,  and  to  live  in  canvas  had  been  given  to  the 
poor  out  of  the  hand  of  his  Maker,  if  God  made  him  a 
genius  society,  as  soon  as  its  stupid  intelligence  could 
make  the  discovery,  proceeded  to  make  him  a  gentleman. 
In  other  words,  in  days  of  old,  as  sometimes  happens  now, 
the  possessor  of  wealth  arrogated  to  himself  not  only  the 
earth,  but  insisted  upon  a  first  claim  on  the  genius  which 
could  understand  its  mysteries  and  reveal  its  secrets.  The 
ancient  gentleman  lived  by  toil,  but  like  the  modern  gen- 
tleman, he  lived  not  by  his  own  toil,  but  by  the  toil  of 
others.  If  the  genius  born  in  a  hoyel  was  to  rank  with  the 
aristocrat  who  claimed  for  himself  not  only  the  products 
of  his  brother's  toil,  but  the  fruits  of  his  brother's  gen*'^s, 


EDUCATIONAL     ENDOWMENTS.  l6l 

then  he  too  must  be  provided  an  opportunity  to  Hve  with 
his  hands  unstained  by  toil.  Hence  the  endowment,  first, 
in  order  that  leisure  for  learning  might  be  possible,  and 
secondly,  in  order  that  the  disgrace  of  labor  might  not  at- 
tach to  the  scholar  who  was  to  be  the  associate  of  the 
despoiler  of  labor.  Thus  I  believe  that  the  endowments 
came  to  be  for  a  mixture  of  reasons,  the  one  worthy  and 
the  other  unworthy. 

But  whatever  services  the  endowment  may  have  ren- 
dered in  the  past,  it  is  no  longer  necessary,  neither  is  it  de- 
sirable.   I  do  not  believe  the  endowment  is  now  necessary 
to  provide  leisure  for  a  portion  of  us  by  prolonging  the 
hours  of  toil  for  the  balance  of  us,  because  leisure  is  now 
within  the  easy  reach  of  all  of  us.    The  endowment  could 
never  be  justified  except  that  the  light  of  learning  could 
not  come  except  the  toiler  sacrifice  that  the  student  might 
study.    But  it  is  no  longer  necessary  for  one  man  to  sac- 
rifice the  intellectual  life  which  is  the  right  of  all  in  order 
that  another  may  follow  a  scholarly  career.    Each  man  of 
us,  if  he  will,  may  now  produce  his  living  with  a  few 
hours  of  labor,  and  w*e  may  every  one  of  us  belong  to  the 
leisure  classes,  not  because  we  live  from  the  products  of 
our  overworked  brothers,  but  because  providing  for  our- 
selves we  may  still  have  long  hours  of  leisure,  which 
wise  men  will  devote  to  intellectual  and  social  purposes. 
Never  in  the  history  of  the  world  was  it  so  easy  to  produce 
a  living  as  now.    I  believe  it  is  also  true  that  it  has  rarely 
been  so  hard  to  get  the  living  after  it  was  produced.    But 
the  getting  of  what  we  produce  is  no  fault  of  productive 
processes,  it  is  the  fault  of  distribution.     Endowments 
will  not  help  the  unjust  and  faulty  system  by  which  we 
undertake  to  get  our  living  after  our  toil  has  produced  it. 
The  remedy  is  not  more  endowments,  it  is  in  better  or- 
ganization.    In  the  olden  time  a  weaver  wove  eighteen 
yards  of  cloth  in  a  week.    Now  she  weaves  two  thousand, 
and  with  new  machinery  not  yet  in  place,  which  it  is  said 
will  displace  one-half  of  all  the  weavers  in  the  country,  a 
single  weaver  may  produce  in  a  single  week  four  thousand 
eight  hundred  yards  of  cloth.    The  average  of  wheat  pro- 
duction for  the  workers  employed  on  the  great  farms 


1 62  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

makes  a  single  worker  in  a  single  summer  produce  wheat 
enough,  which,  if  ground  into  flour  and  baked  into  bread, 
would  furni*sh  bread  for  a  family  of  five  people  for  a 
period  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Why  should  we  go 
ragged  and  hungry  when  it  is  so  easy  to  produce  food  and 
clothing?  Why  should  one  man  toil  to  feed  and  clothe 
another  when  the  processes  of  production  are  so  simple, 
so  easy,  so  fruitful?  Why  not  each  man  as  a  factor  in  a 
more  perfect  organization  of  industry  first  feed  himself, 
clothe  himself,  and  then  let  the  others  who  have  been  rid- 
ing on  his  back,  despoiling  him  of  the  products  of  his  la- 
bor, take  a  turn  at  feeding  and  clothing  themselves  also? 
Then  no  endowments  will  be  necessary. 

But  the  more  serious  indictment  is  not  that  these  en- 
dov;ments  can  be  disposed  of,  but  that  they  ought  to  be 
disposed  of,  that  their  presence  and  their  influence  is  di- 
rectly pernicious.  These  endowments  still  encourage  the 
vulgarity  of  wealth  in  its  attempt  to  monopolize  learning, 
to  claim  for  the  well-to-do,  only,  the  advantages  of  high 
thinking  and  worthy  living.  The  Omaha  bishop  who  re- 
cently declared  that  the  source  of  our  discontent  was  in 
the  over-education  of  the  farmers'  boys  is  a  fair  illustra- 
tion. He  said  the  farmers'  boys  were  becoming  ambitious 
to  be  gentlemen,  while  they  ought  to  be  toilers,  ought  to 
be  left  on  the  farm,  to  be  suited  with  the  lot  to  which  God 
had  called  them.  The  new  civilization  gives  a  new  mean- 
ing to  the  old  term  gentleman.  The  complaint  is  not  be- 
cause the  farmers'  boys  are  too  anxious  to  cease  toil  in 
order  that  they  may  be  gentlemen.  It  is  because  the  bishop 
and  his  associates  err  in  their  arrogant  and  unseemly  as- 
sumption that  to  be  learned  means  to  be  idle,  to  be  intelli- 
gent means  to  be  a  robber,  to  know  something  means  to 
do  nothing.  This  idea  of  the  dignity  of  fortunate  in- 
dolence and  the  wrong  of  ambitious  poverty  is  insepara- 
bly connected  with  the  spirit  that  lives  and  breathes  in  the 
atmosphere  of  educational  endowments.  The  dignity  of 
labor  demands  that  all  shall  toil,  that  the  wisest  and  the 
best,  "the  greatest  of  all  shall  be  the  servant  of  all."  To 
be  idle  must  cease  to  be  the  badge  of  learning.  To  be  in- 
dustrious must  become  the  mark  of  a  gentleman.     In- 


EDUCATIONAL     ENDOWMENTS.  163 

dolence  for  men  or  women,  for  any  human  life,  is  discred- 
itable. No  gentleman  should  consent  that  another  shall 
do  ior  him  the  toilsome  and  disagreeable  things  incident 
to  his  living  on  God's  earth  and  in  the  midst  of  his  Fath- 
er's children. 

Again,  these  endowments  are  not  desirable,  because 
they  make  the  opportunity  to  teach  at  all  in  the  great  in- 
stitutions of  learning  conditioned  on  keeping  the  peace 
with  the  enemies  of  society.    The  real  enemies  of  society 
are  not  the  ill-formed,  ragged,  homeless  people.     They 
are  not  even  the  corporations,  the  trusts,  and  combines, 
whose  existence  necessarily  involves  the  hungry  and  rag- 
ged multitude.     The  real  enemies  of  society  are  forces 
which  have  outgrown  any  occasion  for  their  existence. 
Forces  which  make  the  trust  and  the  combination  inevita- 
ble, and  which  make  the  harvest  of  disaster  as  certain  as  is 
the  coming  of  the  seasons.     These  enemies  of  society 
through  forms  which  the  laws  justifv,  with  authorities 
which  the  courts  enforce,  organize  their  life,  manage  their 
affairs  for  the  purpose  of  securing  through   stocks  or 
bonds  or  mortgages  what  the  old  slave  svstem  secured 
through  the  stinging  lash.    The  old  slave 'system  fed  its 
victim  while  he  was  able  to  toil,  and  then  sometimes  turn- 
ed him  out  tQ  die.    But  this  modern  svstem  anticipates  the 
infirmities  of  age,  and  cuts  off  the  toiler  from  the  oppor- 
tunity of  living  in  the  midst  of  his  years.    How  shall  an 
educational  institution  realize  on   farm  mortgages  and 
not  justify  the  whole  system  by  which  the  mortgage  shark, 
the  bondholder,  and  the  oppressor— not  that  these  men 
are  bad,  but  that  the  system  is  infamous— how  shall  the 
educational  institution  be  itself  a  leech  on  the  bodv  politic, 
and  at  the  same  time  strive  in  any  wav  or  to  any  deg'-ee 
to  relieve  society  from  the  forces  which  are  sappin^r  it^life 
blood? 

Under  this  endowment  system  wisdom  must  make  its 
peace  with  greed.  Genius  must  harness  itself  to  plunder 
The  interests  of  the  Rockefellers  who  give  the  endow- 
ments and  the  Harpers  who  realize  on  the  investments  are 
one.  Great  learning  in  the  schools  and  great  infamy  in 
the  market  join  hands.    And  when  the  teacher  refuses  to 


164  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

give  his  hand  he  can  no  longer  take,  even  if  forgetting  his 
self-respect  he  were  willing  to  take,  the  fruits  of  commer- 
cial plunder.  As  a  result  of  the  conditions  under  which 
instruction  is  given  on  economic  topics  in  this  country  no- 
tice the  silence  of  the  great  schools,  except  when  they 
speak  in  defens-e  of  their  great  benefactors,  regarding 
every  question  which  affects  the  industrial  interests  of  so- 
ciety. Where  is  Professor  Bemis?  Why  did  he  lose  his 
place  in  the  Chicago  University?  How  does  it  happen 
that  in  the  last  campaign  the  teachers  of  economics  in  the 
great  institutions  of  learning  said  nothing,  or  said  that  the 
gold  standard  was  wdse?  How  does  it  happen  that  in  our 
great  university  of  the  city  of  Chicago  the  pages  of  the 
daily  press  rang  with  their  words  of  approval  for  the  pres- 
ent order?  Why  did  Henry  Wade  Rogers  of  the  North- 
western University  ask  the  good  people  to  vote  for  the 
gold  standard?  Because  it  was  wise?  Because  it  w^as 
just?  Because  it  was  fair  to  those  of  us  the  prices  of  whose 
products  were  cut  in  two  by  its  operation,  while  debts, 
taxes,  fixed  charges,  and  interest  payments  on  university 
endowments  remained  unchanged?  You  can  find  no 
other  answer  than  the  one  I  give  you,  than  the  reason  Mr. 
Rogers  himself  has  given.  It  would  affect — unfortunate- 
ly for  the  University — the  purchasing  powder  of  the  in- 
terest payments  on  the  University's  endowment.  So  could 
every  man  who  holds  a  mortgage,  so  coiild  every  man 
who  has  a  fixed  salary,  so  could  every  man  who  gets  more 
than  his  right  while  the  toiler  gets  less  than  is  just,  con- 
tinue the  defense  of  the  gold  standard  infamy  for  the  sake 
of  his  private  income.  There  is  another  answer  some- 
times given ;  it  is  that  these  are  the  scholars  of  the  coun- 
try. They  are  wise.  They  understand.  They  are  for  the 
gold  standard  because  they  know  better  than  w^e.  If  they 
do,  let  them  come  into  the  open,  let  them  meet  us  on  the 
platform.  Why  do  they  not  silence  their  intellectual  in- 
feriors? It  would  be  wiser  to  answer  us  and  expose  our 
folly. 

But  again,  the  endowment  is  undesirable  because  self- 
support  is  better.  Shall  we  try  longer  to  teach  men  to  be 
self-respecting,  self-reliant,  by  putting  the  atmosphere  of 


EDUCATIONAL     ENDOWMENTS.  1 65 

chronic  begg-ary  around  them  during  the  years  of  their 
education?  Xo  lessons  that  come  out  of  the  dead  past,  no 
authority  that  can  be  gotten  by  any  diploma  ever  written, 
can  add  so  much  to  the  manliness  and  strength  of  a  hu- 
man character  as  a  fixed  determination  on  the  part  of  a 
boy  to  be  his  own  master,  to  carry  his  own  burdens,  to 
earn  his  own  living.  And  this  the  endowment  policy 
makes  impossible.  They  set  a  boy  to  w^ork  learning  things 
out  of  books,  and  then  they  build  a  gymnasium  in  order 
to  make  his  blood  circulate,  in  order  to  give  him  a  strong 
body,  where  the  young  fellow  may  work  a  little  while 
each  day  without  the  particular  disgrace  of  having  done 
something  useful  while  engaged  at  his  task.  The  exer- 
cise necessary  to  keep  one's  body  strong,  if  organized  and 
equipped,  is  sufftcient  to  feed  and  clothe  and  house  him. 
But  if  it  is  not,  by  what  possible  right,  by  what  principle 
in  ethics,  by  what  sentiment  in  religion  shall  you  continue 
to  compel  the  many  to  forego  the  opportunity  to  live  on 
rational  lines  the  full  intellectual  and  social  life  of  a  man, 
in  order  that  a  few  may  have  more  than  a  man's  chance, 
more  than  a  fair  opportunity  in  the  same  field?  If  the  en- 
dowment funds  of  the  Chicago  University  were  invested 
in  farm  mortgages  it  would  place  a  mortgage  of  at  least 
$500  on  each  of  the  farms  of  not  fewer  than  twenty 
thousand  farmers.  If  each  farmer's  family  averaged  five 
members,  then  for  each  student  now  in  the  university 
there  would  be  somewhere  near  one  hundred  men,  women 
and  children  deprived  of  every  opportunity  for  the  higher 
learning,  toiling  through  all  the  year  to  meet  the  coming 
interest  payment,  in  order  that  one  young  man,  a  stalwart, 
able-bodied  fellow,  a  master  of  base«ball,  a  leader  in  the 
foot-ball  gang,  a  toiler  in  the  gymnasium,  may  have  the 
advantages  which  might  be  within  the  reach  of  every 
one  of  us. 

The  educational  problem  is  no  longer  how  to  realize 
on  endowments  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  who  are  inside 
the  schools.  The  educational  problem  means  reaching  the 
darkened  and  deserted  lives  of  the  penniless  and  helpless, 
overborne  through  this  very  mortgage  system,  which  is  a 
part  of  the  endowment  system,  which  robs  the  toiler  and 


l56  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

leaves  him  in  his  ruin.  Then  for  the  sake  of  manUness, 
for  the  sake  of  fair  play,  for  the  sake  of  an  opportunity  for 
those  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  society,  for  the  sake  of 
the  dignity  of  labor,  for  the  sake  of  freedom  of  instruction 
in  the  schools, — this  is  what  we  ask  for,  extend  the  equip- 
ment, and  abandon  the  endowments  of  the  great  educa- 
tional institutions.  I  would  extend  the  equipment  to  in- 
clude farms,  and  shops,  and  gardens,  for  the  direct  em- 
ployment of  the  labor  of  both  teacher  and  student  in  the 
direct  production  of  their  own  daily  bread. 

I  am  giving  my  time  to  such  a  school.  We  are  few  in 
number.  In  March  last  we  commenced  our  work,  almost 
penniless.  Our  equipment  was  very  scanty,  our  resources 
were  very  few.  But  no  one  can  visit  the  farm  school,  no 
one  can  study  the  work  we  are  undertaking,  where  teach- 
ers and  students,  alike,  toil  for  their  living,  and  teach  and 
study  for  the  love  of  it,  neither  seeking  for  any  reward  in 
leisure  and  learning,  save  the  reward  which  leisure  and 
learning  itself  can  offer, — no  one  can  become  familiar 
with  our  work  without  being  convinced  that  we  are  on 
the  road  to  a  splendid  success.  The  objection  to  our  prop- 
osition more  frequently  urged  than  any  other  is,  that 
teachers  will  not  come  to  us,  but  they  are  coming.  The 
objection  urged  is  that  only  large  salaries  can  employ  the 
best  teachers.  Our  answer  is,  large  salaries  can  only  em- 
ploy such  teachers  as  can  be  bought.  There  are  men  who 
teach  who  are  no  longer  in  the  market.  The  answer  is 
again,  teachers  are  not  only  coming,  but  only  the  best  will 
come. 

And  finally,  the  answer  which  is  absolute.  No  new 
thought  ever  came  to  the  world,  no  new  inspiration  ever 
moved  its  heart,  no  new  ideal  was  ever  brought  into  form 
and  being  except  the  teacher  who  taught  the  new  lesson, 
the  builder  who  built  the  new  temple,  the  reformer  who 
wrought  out  the  new  life  gladly  and  freely  gave  himself  for 
the  joy  of  his  undertaking.  The  great  teachers  of  the 
world  have  taught  without  reward.  The  great  students  of 
the  past  have  wrought  out  their  lessons  may  be  in  penury, 
but  never  in  greed.  Socrates  was  a  teacher.  St.  Paul  was 
a  teacher.    Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  a  teacher.    His  church 


EDUCATIONAL     ENDOWMENTS.  167 

was  a  school.  Then,  and  now,  for  those  who  love  wisest 
and  best  the  glory  of  humanity  which  they  serve  is  the 
only  and  sufficient  reward  for  their  priceless  services. 


THE  PEOPLE'S  UNIVERSITY. 

This  afternoon  I  am  to  speak  on  the  subject  of  The 
People's  University.  The  People's  University  is  a  char- 
tered organization  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
authorized  in  its  charter  to  do  two  things.  One  is,  to 
organize  such  Clubs  as  we  have  here,  and  the  other  is  to 
org^anize  and  establish  farm  schools-,  such  a  school  as  we 
have  down  at  Hopkins  Park,  and  in  which  I  am  interest- 
ed, and  of  which  you  all  know.  The  one  is  in  the  line  of 
general  agitation  and  education  on  public,  economic  and 
social  questions ;  and  the  other  is  ini  the  line  of  organizing 
and  building  directly  farm  schools,  where  industry  and 
study  are  to  be  combined  and  to  go  forward  together.  I 
wish  you  to  go  with  me  as  patiently  as  you  can,  while  I 
discuss  some  of  the  things  that  lie  around  the  organiza- 
tion which  we  are  attempting  to  carry  forward. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  most  profound  conviction  of 
mine  that  the  whole  line  of  our  life  is  organized  and  man- 
aged bottomed  in  wrong  motives,  that  if  we  succeed  we 
fail,  and  if  we  fail  we  fail.  That  the  real  object  of  human 
life  is  not  promoted  by  the  ordinary  industrial  and  com- 
mercial life;  but  the  effect  of  the  industrial  and  commercial 
life  of  this  generation  is  to  corrupt  the  people,  is  to  mis- 
lead young  men  and  women,  is  to  fill  our  lives  with  bit- 
termesis  and  mutual  hatred.  The  very  ideaS'  that  our  insti- 
tutions are  bottomed  on  are  wrong.  The  more  earnestly 
a  man  gives  himself  to  them  the  worse  he  is;  the  more 
splendidly  a  man  succeeds  in  amassing  a  fortune  the  more 
bitterly  he  fails  in  the  realization  of  the  best  life.  So  far  as 
real  manhood  is  concerned,  modern  commercialism  is  a 
stumbling  block  in  the  way,  it  is  a  most  serious  burden,  it 

i68 


THE     people's     university.  1 69 

is  the  heaviest  to  carry,  and  it  brings  only  disappointment 
at  the  end. 

I  beHeve  that  the  men  who  lose  fortunes  are  not  more 
unfortunate  than  those  who  gain  them.  Men  who  strive 
for  wide  acres  and  strive  in  vain,  closing  their  lives  with 
barely  enough  land  to  cover  their  dead  bodies,  have  not 
failed  more  surely  than  the  men  who  have  obtained  broad 
acres,  and  have  built  great  shops  and  factories  there  and 
called  them  their  own ;  who  have  organized  great  com- 
panies of  workers,  not  to  work  for  the  workers  themselves, 
but  for  them ;  not  to  provide  for  the  workers'  own  fami- 
lies, but  to  provide  for  them  large  dividends  on  large 
stock  investments,  which  they  may  spend  in  careless  or 
liotous  living,  or  let  go  of  when  death  loosens  their  grip 
and  they  are  bound  to  let  go.  I  believe  that  the  V'ander- 
bilts  and  Goulds  and  Rockefellers  are  the  most  conspicu- 
ous failures  of  this  generation.  I  believe  the  coldness  and 
hardness  of  their  hearts,  I  believe  the  greed  that  has  ab- 
sorbed their  lives,  I  believe  the  bitterness  that  must  neces- 
sarily take  possession  of  them,  I  believe  that  their  ability 
to  remain  deaf  and  dumb  to  the  cries  of  the  hungry,  the 
brutality  which  makes  them  willing  to  put  themselves  in 
a  position  where  they  may  not  even  know  of  the  sufTering' 
of  those  whom  they  rob  of  the  products  of  their  labor, — I 
believe  that  these  things  must  be  perpetual  torment  to 
them.  I  believe  that  these  men,  supposed  to  be  such  ex- 
amples of  businiessi  sense,  are  terrible  wrecks,  nitaking 
wreckage  of  everything  coming  within  their  reach.  I  be- 
lieve that  each  added  contribution  to  their  fortunes  is  an 
added  cup  of  bitterness  to  their  daily  fare.  That  is  the 
reason  why  old  Commodore  Vanderbilt  wept  when  he 
died,  declaring  himself  to  be  poor  and  needy;  and  why 
Rockefeller  said  the  other  day  that  no  man  was  so  poor 
as  that  man  who  has  only  dollars.  Whether  he  believed  it 
or  not,  I  believe  it  with  my  whole  heart.  To  succeed  with 
such  enterprises  as  theirs  is  to  cover  your  clothing  with 
your  fellows''  blood,  and  succeied  as  a  murderer  succeeds; 
he  ends  the  life  of  another  only  to  make  an  unending 
tragedy  of  his  own. 

The  things  we  are  all  doing  day  by  day  are  wrong,  and 


1 70  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

if  we  Strive  and  fail  there  is  the  disappointment  of  failure, 
and  if  we  strive  and  succeed  there  is  disappointment  of  a 
bitterer  failure.    I  believe  in  the  old  Moral  Law.    I  be- 
lieve that  the  things  which  are  there  forbidden,  each  man 
out  of  his  own  heart  ought  to  forbid  himself  to  do.    "Thou  . 
Shalt  not  kill,"  is  a  part  of  the  Moral  Law,  and  the  man 
who  kills  violates  the  Moral  Law  and  becomes  thereby  an 
immoral  man.    "Thou  shalt  not  steal"  is  part  of  the  Moral 
Law,  and  the  man  who  steals  violates  the  Moral  Law  and 
becomes  an  immoral  man.    "Thou  shalt  not  covet"  is  a 
part  of  the  same  law,  v/ritten  on  the  same  tables  of  stone, 
brought  down  through  the  same  centuries  of  the  past,  and 
I  believe  bottomed  upon  the  nature  of  the  life  of  man. 
"Thou  shalt  not  covet"  is  a  part  of  the  Moral  Law,  and  he 
who  covets  violates  the  Moral  Law  and  is  an  immoral 
man.    There  are  other  commands,  "Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery,"  "Thou  shalt  not  murder,"  "Thou  shah  not 
lie,"  and  the  man  who  does  these  things  is  guilty  of  im- 
morality.   A  business  institution  that  is  established  with 
the  direct  purpose  of  its  existence  to  realize  a  covetous 
purpose  is  a  direct  violation  of  the  Moral  Law,  and  the 
men  who  are  involved  in  it  and  have  a  share  in  it  are  im- 
moral mieni.    I  believe  that  the  mien  who  build  them  and 
manage  them,  and  from  them  gather  their  harvest  are  im- 
moral in  the  same  way  as  if  they  had  broken  any  other 
portion  of  the  Moral  Law.    It  is  nowhere  said  if  a  man 
steals  he  is  then  guilty  of  the  wrong  which  is  at  the  bot- 
tom of  every  other  wrong.    It  is  nowhere  said  that  if  a 
man  shall  murder  he  is  then  guilty  of  the  particular  wrong 
which  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  other  wromgs'.    But  it  i&  de- 
clared that  the  love  of  gain  is  the  root  of  all  evil.    "Thou 
shalt  not  covet"  is  not  only  a  part  of  the  Moral  Law  side 
by  side  with  "Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  but  covetousness  and 
theft  are  alike  immoral,  and  the  covetous  man  and  the 
thief  are  alike  guilty  of  immorality,  only  covetousness  is 
the  basic  wrong  from  which  all  others  follow.  This  covet- 
ousness that  can  gnaw  at  the  heart  and  blight  and  blast  a 
man's  life,  and  blind  his  eyes  and  sear  his  conscience  until 
he  shall  be  prepared  to  do  every  other  wrong, — that  idea 
of  covetousness  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  immorality 


THE     PEOPLE  S     UNIVERSITY.  I7I 

lies  also  at  the  bottom  of  our  industrial  and  commercial 
system. 

A  young  man  in  college  is  training  that  he  may  suc- 
ceed in  life.  Succeed  in  doing  what?  In  becoming  able 
to  indulge,  he  cannot  satisfy,  his  greed.  He  is  to  know 
when  to  take  advantage  of  a  great  opportunity.  An  op- 
portunity to  do  what?  To  gratify  his  greed.  To  trample 
on  the  Moral  Law.  It  is  immoral  for  an  institution  to  or- 
ganize itself  with  the  purpose  of  appealing  to  that  which 
is  immoral  in  the  man.  If  it  is  an  educational  institution 
it  is  a  corru])tor  of  the  youth.  The  higher  learning  must 
mean  training  for  a  higher  life. 

There  never  was  an  army  organized  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  made  up  of  men  whose  leading  characteristic 
was  greed,  that  ever  fouglit  a  battle  and  won  a  victory 
that  added  one  single  star  to  the  firmament  of  human 
achievement.  When  any  nation  becomes  devoted  to  com- 
mercialism it  becomes  unpatriotic,  it  becomes  sordid,  it 
puts  a  price  on  other  things,  and  at  last  it  puts  a  price  on 
Its  flag.  It  puts  a  price  on  other  things,  and  at  last  puts  a 
price  on  its  civic  virtue,  brings  all  social  life  into  the  mar- 
ket, and  sells  the  sermons  of  the  preacher,  the  services  of 
the  priest,  the  lessons  of  the  teacher,  the  paintings  of  the 
artist,  the  products  of  the  farmer,  the  counsel  of  the  at- 
torney. The  very  gift  of  wedlock  becomes  itself  a  Dar- 
g:ain  in  the  midst  of  the  commercialism-  that  organizes  life 
on  the  basis  of  greed,  which  is  the  acknowledged  basis  of 
our  industrial  life. 

Now  we  need  in  our  life  a  new  motive.  Labor  is  bot- 
tomed on  a  wrong  motive,  and  business  is  bottomed  on  a 
wrong  motive.  I  wish  I  could  live  in  a  land  for  a  little 
while  where  the  uppermost  ambition  of  a  voung  man 
should  be  to  have  a  clean  body,  to  put  no  poison  in  the 
blood  that  visits  his  young  heaVt,  to  be  guilty  of  no  con- 
duct that  should  undermine  the  phvsical  greatness,  ihe 
strength  of  the  life  his  :\Iaker  has  given  him.  I  wish  I 
could  live  in  a  community  sometime,  somewhere,  where 
the  restless,  overreaching,  overbearing,  scheming,  cheat- 
ing life  struggle,  working  to  death  on  the  one  hand,  and 
starvmg  to  death  on  the  other,  could  take  a  vacation  lonc^ 


172  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

enough  to  allow  the  better  side  of  humanity  to  speak  just 
loud  enough  to  hear  the  matchless  music  of  its  sweet 
voice.  I  wish  I  could  live  somewhere,  sometime,  where 
men  would  care  more  for  the  things  they  think  than  for 
the  things  they  eat.  I  wisli,  I  could  live  sometime,  some- 
where, where  men  would  care  more  for  the  emotions  that 
move  their  hearts  than  for  the  indulgences^  that  gratify 
their  passions.  I  wish  I  could  know  men,  sometime, 
somiewhere,  who  would  so  appreciate  the  good  and  the 
beautiful,  and  so  strive  after  the  attainm'emt  of  these,  that 
all  greedy,  base,  selfish  considerations  should  lose  their 
power  over  man,  and  let  him  live  for  onice  the  child  of 
his  Creator. 

A  man  goes  into  business  as  a  workman,  or  as  a  man- 
ager. In  either  case  there  is  just  one  motive  appealed  to, 
and  that  is  to  make  something.  If  he  is  an  employer  of 
labor  he  must  be  a  capitalist.  But,  you  say  he  borrows 
his  capital ;  yes,  but  he  must  have  some  capital  to  begin 
with.  And  when  he  goes  into  the  employment  of  others 
he  immediately  puts  himself  into  the  position  where  he  is 
doing  what?  Giving  another  man  employment  in  order 
that  he  may  add  to  a  stock  of  property  already  sufficient 
to  satisfy  his  own  real  wants.  If  his  real  wants  are  already 
supplied,  why  then  does  he  take  the  risks  of  business?  To 
satisfy  his  greed.  How  large  must  be  his  possessions  for 
such  a  purpose?  The  universe  is  all  too  small.  He  sets 
another  man  to  labor.  What  for?  Wages.  What  for? 
So  he  may  get  his  daily  bread.  What  for?  In  order  that 
he  may  be  alive  to-morrow.  What  for?  In  order  that  he 
may  work.  What  for?  To  get  wages.  What  for?  To 
buy  bread.  What  for?  To  get  wages,  to  buy  bread,  to 
stay  alive,  to  get  some  more  money,  to  buy  somie  more 
bread,  to  do  some  more  work,  to  get  some  more  wages  to 
buy  some  more  bread,  to  stay  alive,  to  do  some  more 
work,  to  get  some  more  wages,  to  buy  some  more  bread, 
to  stay  alive,  to  do  more  work,  to  get  some  more  wages, 
to  buy  some  more  bread. 

It  is  reported  that  Peter  Cartwright  once  said  the  Illi- 
nois farmers  were  engaged  in  the  business  of  raising  corn 
to  feed  hogs,  to  sell  the  hogs  to  buy  more  land  to  raise 


THE    people's   university.  173 

some  more  corn  to  feed  some  more  hogs,  to  get  some 
more  land  to  raise  some  more  corn  to  feed  some  more 
ho^s,  to  get  soni'e  more  land  to  raise  some  more  corn  to 
feed  some  more  hogs. 

I  stand  here  and  declare  this  afternoon  that  the  whole 
industrial  and  commercial  life  of  this  generation  is  walk- 
ing in  that  endless,  meaningless,  purposeless  wheel  of 
raising  more  corn  to  feed  more  hogs,  to  get  more  land  to 
raise  more  corn  to  feed  more  hogs. 

I  want  conditions  to  come  sometime,  somewhere,  by 
which  we  mav  break  that  vicious  circle,  and  at  every  turn 
instead  of  turning  the  products  back  into  hogs,  we  can 
turn  it  upward  into  something  that  is  purer  and  stronger 
and  nobler  for  humanity's  sake.  I  believe  that  it  was  in- 
tended bv  our  Creator  that  every  one  of  us  should  live  a 
three-fold  life.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  man  has  a  right 
to  eat  bread  in  the  sweat  of  any  other  man's  face.  I  be- 
lieve it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  eat  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  his  own  face.  '  I  believe  that  our  hands  were  given  to 
every  one  of  us,  men  and  women  alike,  that  with  these 
hands  of  ours  we  should  add  as  much  to  the  wealth  of  the 
world  as  with  our  backs  and  with  our  appetites  we  would 
consume  out  of  the  wealth  of  the  world;  and  whatever 
man  or  woman  walks  among  his  fellows  consuming  more 
than  he  produces  is  a  robber  of  society,  to  the  extent  of 
the  balance  that  stands  over  against  him  in  the  account. 
I  believe  that  these  hands  were  given  every  one  of  us  in 
order  that  by  their  toil  we  might  provide  for  a  comforta- 
ble human  existence.  But  as  surely  as  I  believe  that  every 
man's  hands  were  given  him  with  which  to  do  his  own 
toil,  I  believe  his  brains  were  given  him  with  which  to  do 
his  own  thinking.  I  can  only  regard  with  pity  the  man  or 
woman  who  allows  somebody  else  to  do  their  hard  work 
for  them,  but  I  must  regard  with  contempt  the  men  or 
women  who  allow  any  other  human  being  to  do  their 
thinking  for  them.  Listen !  I  believe  my  head  was  put  on 
the  top  "of  my  body  with  a  view  of  having  the  head  on  top 
all  the  time. '  The  Lord  never  would  have  made  a  man  or 
woman,  and  put  their  heads  on  top  in  the  beginning,  if 
He  had  not  intended  their  heads  to  stay  on  top  of  their 


174  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

bodies  all  their  lives  through.  I  think  it  is  evident  on  the 
face  of  things, — in  order  to  make  a  man  after  the  manner 
of  some  men,— you  would  need  to  reverse  that,  and  put  his 
head  down  somewhere  else  and  his  stomach  above  his 
shoulders. 

Over  in  London  a  few  years  ago  there  was  a  reform 
started  called  The  Cab  Horse  Reform.  It  was  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  for  the  men  who  drove  the  cab  horses 
a  wage  that  would  enable  them  to  maintain  a  living  that 
would  correspond  with  the  standard  of  living  provided  for 
the  horses.  It  seems  to  be  an  absurd  thing  that  this  city 
should  find  i-tself  in  a  position  where  an  agitation  and  re- 
form was  necessary  in  order  to  bring  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing for  the  working  man  up  to  the  standard  of  living  for 
the  working  horse.  But  when  he  has  as  good  shelter  as 
the  horse,  as  abundant  food,  as  good  medical  care,  you 
have  provided  for  two  horses,  not  for  a  man  and  a  horse. 
Jn  order  to  make  provision  for  a  man  and  a  horse  you 
-  need  the  stable,  the  blanket  and  hay  and  oats  and  straw, 
but  blankets  and  hay  and  oats  and  straw,  clothes,  food, 
and  lodging  are  not  a  sufificient  provision  for  a  man.  Man 
has  something  higher  and  better  than  that,  and  he  who 
lives  to  get  straw  may  get  a  lot  of  it,  he  who  lives  to  get 
food  may  get  a  lot  of  it.,  He  who  lives  to  get  shelter  may 
get  a  roof  wide  enough  to  cover  a  thousand  people.  He 
who  lives  for  the  things  that  can  be  measured  and  can  be 
worn  on  the  back  and  can  be  purchased  in  the  market,  no 
matter  how  much  he  gets  of  it,  is  simply  living  the  life  of 
a  dog  or  a  horse.  That  which  is  characteristic  of  real  hu- 
m,an  life  is  something  that  a  dog  and  a  horse  does  not 
kfiow  much  about.  I  know,  of  course,  there  is  affection, 
between  dogs.  A  friend  of  mine  had  two  pet  dogs  and 
one  died,  and  the  other  died  of  a  broken  heart.  A  brother 
of  mine  had  two  horses,  and  when  they  were  separated 
and  one  taken  out  to  use,  he  found  the  one  that  was  left 
still  fighting  for  his  liberty  on  his  return,  so  he  could  join 
his  mate.  I  knov/  there  are  attachments  among  dogs  and 
hors'es,  there  ane  affections  amonig  the  wild  beasts  that 
ought  to  shame  this  hum.an  race  of  ours,  where  men  and 
women  more  readily  sacrifice  their  children  to  this  Mo- 


THE   people's  university.  175 

loch  of  greed  than  tigers  sacrifice  theirs  to  the  enemy  that 
comes  to  take  them  away.    But  still  I  insist  that  that  life 
is  human  life,  that  thinks  as  well  as  feeds,  that  studies  as 
well  as  grows,  hungers  for  books  and  music,  can  look  out 
into  the  world  of  beauty,  and  gather  into  its  own  soul 
emotions  that  are  worth  more  to  him  than  any  emotion 
that  ever  stirred  the  heart  of  any  miser  as  he  counted  his 
gold.    I  tell  vou,  the  real  human  life  is  one  that  strives  for 
ideals,  that  finds  its  satisfaction,  not  in  feeding  the  greed 
that  misleads  a  man,  but  in  feeding  the  emotions,  m  the 
satisfaction  of  which  he  becomes  allied  in  his  character 
with  the  very  God  who  gave  him  his  being  in  the  first 
place.     We  are  at  once  demons,  and  angels.     I  do  not 
know  much  about  angels,  but  I  believe  from  what  I  can 
learn  from  mvself  and  from  what  I  can  get  from  literature 
and  song,  from  what  has  been  told  us  of  the  temptations 
and  trials  and  triumphs  of  the  past,  that  the  nature  of  man 
is  alive  in  two  directions.     I  believe  that  in  him  are  the 
passions  and  appetites  which  burn  with  the  fire  of  hell, 
and  to  which  if  he  lends  his  life  for  a  time  ruin  is  unuttera- 
ble and  terrible.    At  the  same  time  living  in  the  same  man, 
girt  about  bv  the  same  clothing,  speaking  with  the  same 
voice,  looking  through  the  same  eyes,  listening  with  the 
same  ears,  is  a  possibility  in  the  life  of  every  one  that  may 
sing  the  songs  of  splendid  triumph  that  may  fill  his  life 
with  a  matchless,  glorious  joy  that  can  be  found  not  by 
food,  not  bv  clothing,  not  by  possessions,  not  by  riotous 
living,  not  bv  a  horse's  fare  even  on  a  large  scale. 

Your  boy  graduates  from  school.  He  has  studied 
there  long  enough  to  get  some  little  inkling  of  what  poe- 
try means,  of  the  matchless  rhythm  with  whicli  the  old 
poets  spoke.  To  learn  something  of  the  marvelous  story 
that  prose  can  never  speak.  He  has  felt  the  emotion  that 
no  voice,  no  literature,  no  poetry  can  ever  start  in  the 
human  soul,  but  only  the  voice  of  music  can  start  there. 
He  has  just  gotten  started  in  the  way  of  som^ething  that  is 
intellectual  and  social,  that  feeds  and  satisfies  the  higher 
life  of  man,  and  then  he  is  out  of  college  and  into  business. 
He  goes  down  down  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning,  goes 
home  at  night,  goes  to  bed.    In  the  morning  he  goes  down 


17b  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

town  again,  goes  home  at  night,  goes  to  bed,  to  get  up  in 
the  morning,  goes  down  town,  goes  home  at  night,  goes  to 
bed.  What  for?  For  some  more  money  to  buy  some 
more  hogs. 

This  is  my  proposition.  If  a  man  succeeds  in  attain- 
ing all  that  the  ordinary  labor  organization  asks  he  has 
only  fodder.  If  a  man  succeeds  in  getting  all  that  the  or- 
dinary ambition  of  an  ordinary  business  man  craves  he 
has  only  fodder.  What  would  a  fellow  do  with  Lake 
Michigan,  full  of  soup,  and  only  able  to  eat  a  pint  of  it? 
Follow  along  another  thought.  Is  it  possible  for  us  to 
put  the  intellectual  and  social  life  within  the  reach  of  every 
man,  woman  and  child?  I  believe  it  is.  I  am  profoundly 
convinced  of  one  of  two  things.  Either"this  race  to  which 
I  belong  may  have  for  all  its  members  an  intellectual  and 
a  social  life,  or  back  of  it  there  is  no  beneficent  purpose, 
but  a  very  demon  is  the  father  of  the  human  race.  I  be- 
lieve that  running  through  the  life  of  this  race  is  benefi- 
cence. I  believe  that  no  man  can  study  the  life  of  plants 
and  flowers,  the  combinations  that  are  given  us  in  all  the 
things  of  use,  wdthout  being  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
a  beneficent'  heart  is  in  all  these  things,  and  that  we  may 
be  co-workers  in  the  same  spirit  and  to  the  same  end. 

But  when  we  follow  that  suggestion  of  universal  ben- 
eficence to  the  point  of  doing  business  we  do  not  find  it 
there.  The  rain  comes  down  on  the  just  and  the  unjust, 
and  business  prosperity  comes  to  the  unjust  and  skips  the 
just  most  of  the  time. 

In  this  country  there  are  a  good  number  of  schools  and 
a  good  number  of  shops.  In  the  shop  there  is  no  sugges- 
tion of  intellectual  life,  in  the  school  there  is  no  sugges- 
tion of  industry. 

The  school  attempts  all  the  time  to  do  nothing  which 
is  useful.  Is  there  a  way  by  which  that  which  is  entirely 
business  and  that  which  is  entirely  intellectual  may  be- 
come friends  again,  gather  under  the  same  roof?  Can  the 
shop  and  the  school,  the  lion  and  the  lamb  lie  down  to- 
gether? 

Can  we  put  the  idea  of  patriotism  into  a  company  of 
mien  who  are  going  to  the  workshop  in  the  morning,  and 


THE    people's    university.  I77 

into  the  schoolroom  in  the  afternoon?  If  John  Bull 
should  come  over  here  this  afternoon  with  a  troop  of  sol- 
diers, and  undertake  to  take  possession  of  the  City  Hall 
there  would  be  trouble.  The  presence  of  the  British  coat 
and  the  presence  of  the  British  flag  is  no  more  a  reflection, 
— 1  cannot  believe  that  it  would  be  so  serious  a  reflection, 
— on  the  honor  of  America  than  is  the  presence  of  the  rag- 
g-ed  coat  and  the  flag  of  the  auctioneer.  I  insist  that  to  pro- 
tect and  defend  the  nation's  honor  means  that  there  is  to  be 
no  poor,  there  is  to  be  no  disorder,  there  is  to  be  no  slums, 
and  to  clean  out  the  American  slum  is  an  ambition  wor- 
thier a  beneficent  purpose,  higher  and  more  earnestly  to 
be  desired  than  the  whipping  of  any  army  organized  any- 
where on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Is  there  any  way  by  which 
the  generous,  patriotic,  public-spirited  purpose  w^hich  we 
insist  must  forever  characterize  the  soldier  can  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  ordinary  worker?  Is  there  any  way  by 
which  the  personal,  greedy,  selfish  basis  of  industry  and 
comm'erce  can  be  so  remodeled  that  every  stroke  in'  the 
shop  shall  be  service  for  the  community?  Is  there  any 
Vv-ay  by  which  the  work  of  the  schoolroom  and  the  shop 
can  be' married  together?  It  is  better  to  ask  that  and  try 
to  answer  it  than  to  live  the  life  of  greed  and  gather  the  life 
of  failure  that  may  come  to  us  if  we  fail,  and  will  surely 
come  to  us  if  we  succed.  It  is  better  to  try  to  do  a  good 
thing  and  fail,  than  to  try  to  do  a  bad  thing  and  succeed. 
There  were  a  great  many  centuries  that  free  government 
was  fought  for  before  free  government  was  possible.  If 
the  fighting  of  the  years  of  failure  never  had  been  under- 
taken the  warfare  of  splendid  success  never  could  have 
been  realized.  There  were  long  centuries  of  strife  in  the 
effort  to  enlarge  the  tools,  so  that  the  necessary  toil  for 
producing  a  living  could  be  lessened,  before  there  was^real 
success  in  making  them  do  the  drudgery  of  the  human 
race.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  many  centuries  of  failure 
the  one  century  of  success  could  never  have  been  realized. 
I  will  spend  the  balance  of  the  days  I  have  striving 
to  open  the  better  way.  Oh,  if  but  one  rift  in  the  clouds 
could  be  made,  so  that  the  unfaltering  and  unfailing  star 
of  the  hope  of  humanity  for  the  realization  of  the  nobler 


lyS  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

life,  as  it  shines  forever  above  me,  could  comie  also  within 
the  vision  of  my  fellows. 

What  ground  have  we  for  belief  that  an  effort  of  this 
sort  need  fail?  There  are  churches  that  have  been  in  ex- 
istence a  thousand  years,  three  thousand  years,  five  thou- 
sand years.  Pretty  old  churches.  And  they  have  gone 
through  with  forms  of  organization  running  down 
through  the  centuries  that  involve  more  difBcult  problems 
than  any  involved  in  the  management  of  such  a  school. 
The  labor  unions  are  undertaking  a  more  serious  prob- 
lem when  they  try  to  organize  and  fix  the  prices  that 
shall  be  paid  in  other  people's  shops  than  they  do  when 
they  build  and  manage  shops  of  their  own.  We  under- 
take a  greater  problem,  when  we  undertake,  in  the  city 
of  Chicago,  to  organize  a  movem'ent  to  destroy  the  de- 
partment sfore  we  already  have,  or  that  already  has  us, 
than  we  would  undertake  if  we  w^ould  try  to  organize  a 
splendid  co-operative  store  that  should  be  greater  and 
better,  and  destroy  the  old  by  organizing  the  new,  wider 
and  stronger  than  the  department  store  itself. 

A  Methodist  preacher  said  to  me,  ''Mr.  Mills,  all  this 
talk  about  that  general  co-operative  movement  is  absurd, 
because  men  will  not  want  to  enter  into  it.  Why,  it  is  so 
everywhere.  Of  course,  you  may  get  a  few  ignorant  peo- 
ple, who  are  poor  and  helpless  ;  and  because  of  their  help- 
lessness and  their  poverty  they  might  consent  to  enter 
into  an  organization  where  the  head  of  the  organization 
or  a  committee  might  say  to  them  go,  and  they  go,  but 
intelligent  men  will  not  do  it."  I  replied,  "I  am  sorry  to 
hear  you  say  so.  You  are  a  Methodist  preacher,  are  you 
not?"  ''Yes."  "Well,  Methodist  preachers  agree  to^  go 
where  the  Bishop  sends  them." 

^  How  shall  we  proceed  in  this?  Organize  some  large 
thing?  I^  ami  am  evolutionist.  It  is  not  possible  to  com- 
mience  with  the  simplest  form®  of  life  and  follow  them 
through  all  the  stages  of  development  and  then  be  any- 
thing other  than  an  evolutionist.  It  is  not  possible  to 
study  human  history  and  follow  down  through  the  cen- 
turies the  niev\^  forms  growing  out  of  the  old  ones  and  then 
be  anything  other  than  an  evolutionist.    To  an  evolution- 


THE     PEOPLES     UNIVERSITY.  1 79 

ist  faith  in  instantaneous  creation  or  instantaneous  reform 
is  alike  impossible.  Ihe  evolutionary  law  of  advance  is 
first  the  slightest  variation,  and  then  that  is  repeated  and 
repeated  until  it  becomes  the  fixed  form  of  the  new  life. 
The  day  of  great  things  is  a  day  of  disaster.  The  day  of 
small  things  is  the  birthday  of  destiny. 

Wise  statesmanship  asks  for  small  things  and  gets 
them,  and  thus  makes  substantial  advance  in  the  world's 
progress.  Political  folly  asks  for  the  growth  of  a  thou- 
sand years  in  an  afternoon,  and  not  only  does  not  get  what 
it  seeks  but  loses  the  good  it  might  have  had. 

No  new  association  was  ever  born  into  the  world  that 
was  not  born  out  of  an  old  association  that  had  gone  just 
before.  Each  day  is  born  out  of  the  loins  of  yesterday, 
and  no  new  fomis  of  society  and  no  n.ew  life  to  reorganize 
the  industrial  and  commercial  life  of  the  world  shall  ever 
come  to  us  but  as  it  grows  out  of  the  old. 

I  believe  we  want  to  make  this  beginning,  not  by  trying 
to  capture  the  earth,  but  to  commence  with  a  smalfportion 
of  the  earth,  begin  with  that  part'  of  which  you  have  con- 
trol. I  will  give  you  an  idea.  If  you  want  greed  to  die  out 
of  the  life  of  the  world  suppose  you  begin  to  put  it  out  of 
your  own  heart.  I  know  that  is  a  hard  program,  but  I  do  not 
belie\-e  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  put  in  his  time  beating 
other  people  six  days  in  the  week,  and  then  put  in'  Sunday 
with  any  effect  trying  to  save  other  people  from  the  dis- 
position to  beat  each  other.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  possible 
for  a  man  to  allow  the  strength  of  greed  tocontrol  his  own 
life,  and  have  any  reasonable  share  in  making  anything 
else  but  greed  control  the  lives  of  other  people.  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  possible  for  any  man  to  gather  great  fortunes 
to  himself,  and  to  be  anything  other  than  a  robber  and  a 
teacher  of  the  lessons  of  the  highwayman  to  the  men  who 
are  left  peimiless  and  helpless.  I  believe  when  the  Lord 
said  to  the  young  man  he  was  to  go  and  sell  what  he  had 
and  then  come  back  and  follow  Him,  that  He  opened  the 
only  door  by  which  it  was  possible  for  that  young  man 
to  get  away  from  the  greed  which  was  eating  at  his  own 
heart: 

The  co-operative  society  can  never  come  until  the  co- 


I  bo  EVOLb'TlONARY     POLITICS, 

Operative  man  shall  first  arrive,  and  when*  the  co-operative 
man  has  been  here  over  night  there  will  be  a  co-operative 
society  the  next  morning.  In  the  first  place,  the  people 
shall  have  tools  and  land,  but  they  shall  not  own'  them  in 
such  a  way  that  the  possession  by  one  shall  mean  the  ex- 
clusion of  another.  The  landlord  has  no  business  taking 
possession  of  the  Lord's  earth.  I  believe  that  every  child 
that  comes  into  the  world,  by  the  fact  that  it  makes  its 
appearance  here  by  the  authority  of  the  Creator  of  both 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  has  a  right  to  be,  and  has  a 
ri^ht  to  the  use  of  so  much  of  the  natural  resources  as 
will  enable  him  to  feed  and  clothe  himself;  and  wherever 
a  child  is  born  that  has  not  that  right  some  power  has 
robbed  it  of  its  inheritance,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  restore 
that  inheritance. 

I  believe  that  every  child  that  was  born^  in  this  genera- 
tion is  a  direct  heir  of  all  the  wisdom,  of  all  the  inventions', 
of  all  the  achievements  tii€  centuries  have  been  able  to 
accomplish,  and  I  believe  that  he  is  entitled  to  it;  and  to 
open  some  way  for  the  disinherited  to  get  what  he  is  en- 
titled to  is  the  worthiest  ambition  any  man  can  cherish. 
So  far  as  I  am  concerned  I  am  not  going  to  have  any 
share  in  the  further  robbery  of  the  unborn.  Get  tools, 
buy  them.  Get  land,  buy  it.  There  is  only  one  way  by 
which  men  can  be  organized  and  put  into  a  schoolhouse, 
and  that  is  to  build  a  shop  that  shall  be  a  schoolhouse. 
Let  an  army  be  organized  that  shall  be  a  peaceful  army, 
strive  to  provide  for  its  food  and  clothing  and  shelter,  and 
get  the  young  men  and  women,  the  old  men.  who  have 
children,  and  then  by  their  joint  savings,  and  by  the  gifts 
of  the  other  people,  get  hold  of  a  piece  of  ground,  build 
the  shop  and  the  school,  get  people  into  the  shop  and  the 
school,  and  make  that  school  an  institution  that  shall  fill 
the  young  child's  life,  not  with  greed,  but  with  a  broader- 
hearted  life,  that  shall  love  the  human  race  as  it  loves- 
itself,  and  give  its  time  to  the  redemption  of  the  race  we 
belong  to,' from  the  evils  and  the  wrongs  our  brothers- 
suffer  from. 

Four  years  ago  I  started  out  on  the  sidewalk.  I  have 
had  the  same  salary  that  the  other  fellows-  do  who  hold 


THE   people's    university.  i8i 

down  the  sidewalk.  I  start-ed  out  tryirrg  to  do  something 
along  this  co-operative  line.  I  went  up  to  Northern 
^Michigan,  sixteen  miles  away  from  the  railroad,  through 
a  gTeat  piece  of  pine  barrens,  to  where  trees  stood  seventy- 
five  to  one  hundred  feet  high.  We  gathered  together 
there  in  a  little  while  a  company  of  men  and  women  and 
children,  we  cleared  the  standing  trees  off  from  one  hun- 
dred acres  of  land,  we  built  our  log  cottages,  we  started  a 
saw  mill  and  a  shoe  shop  and  a  few  simple  industries, 
to  finally  discover  that  we  had  located  in^  the  midst  of  a 
country  that  was  owned  by  a  great  lumbering  company, 
a  monopoly  that  covered  all  the  country  around  us,  that 
owned  the  bridges,  that  controlled  the  rivers,  even  owned 
the  streets,  that  owned  every  newspaper,  owned  the 
courts,  owned  everything.  Out  of  a  town  of  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  houses  it  owned  three  hundred  of  the 
houses,  owned  every  printing  press.  Every  court  officer 
was  an  employe  of  the  company,  and  the  company  did 
not  believe  in  co-operative  enterprises,  did  not  propose 
to  keep  us  there,  started  one  attack  after  another,  until 
the  only  thing  that  was  left  for  us  to  do  was  to  move  out. 
and  we  moved  out. 

We  came  down  here  to  Chicago  with  horses  and  cattle 
that  we  had  taken  up  into  the  woods,  nearly  dead.  We 
came  down  to  Chicago  penniless.  We  had  had  one  or  two 
years  in  the  woods,  raised  a  splendid  crop,  a  large  share 
of  which  we  could  not  ship  to  a  market  and  sell  it  for 
enough  to  pay  the  freight  on  it;  w^e  had  to  leave  it  in 
the  woods  to  rot.  W^e  got  down  here  w'ithin  sixty  miles 
of  Chicago,  rented  a  piece  of  land  and  went  to  work  over 
again.  We  are  on  rented  land  still.  We  have  our  rent 
paid  for  two  years  in  advance,  we  have  a  little  cluster  of 
houses,  we  are  about  seven  hundred  dollars  in  debt, 
we  have  forty-four  people  on  the  ground,  we  have  this 
club  organized  here,  we  have  a  charter  from  the  State  of 
Illinois,  we  have  a  board  of  trustees,  we  have  a  number 
of  people  w-ho  are  interested,  we  have  other  men  who  are 
coming  to  us.  But  no  man  that  comes  can  get  any  prop- 
erty interest  among  us.  And  no  man  can  work  long 
enough,  no  man  can  stay  there  long  enough  to  get  any 


1 82  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

title  to  one  foot  of  land.  He  has  the  use  of  the  land,  he 
has  the  use  of  the  stock,  and  the  tools,  and  the  opportunity 
to  employ  his  own  labor,  and  to  him,  and  to  him  alone 
belongs  the  total  product  of  what  his  own  toil  shall  pro- 
duce. But  be  caninot  own  the  ground  under  another 
man's  feet,  nor  the  tools  in  another  man's-  hands.  We 
have  some  boys  and  girls  down  there  who  among  other 
things  are  learning  self-respect  and  self-employment. 

I  do  not  know  as  this  is  going  to  succeed.  I  know 
that  so  far  as  I  am  concerned  the  gladdest  hours  I  have 
ever  known  are  the  hours  I  have  been  trying  to  build  this 
ins'titution.  Whether  it  succ-eeds  or  fails,  I  for  myself 
have  succeeded  at  least  in  taking  a  piece  out  of  my  life  four 
years  long  in  which  there  has  not  been  one  single  day's 
work  that  has'  been  given  for  any  other  purpose  than  to 
make  it  succeed. 

A  matter  of  more  gratitude  than  anything  else  that 
has  ever  come  to  me  has  been  the  patience  and  interest 
with  which  this  company  of  people  has  gathered  here  in 
this  hall.  I  came  to  you  penniless,  I  cam'C  to  you  ragged. 
I  came  with  my  heart  full  and  my  pockets  empty.  I  came 
to  tell  you  some  of  the  things  which  I  believe,  and  which 
I  believe  with  all  my  heart.  For  twenty-five  Sundays  you 
have  gathered  here,  over  and  over  again,  and  you  have 
asked  me  about  the  school.  Where  and  how  you  can 
help  the  school.  I  have  tried  this  afternoon  to  tell  you 
as  well  as  I  can  the  reason  why  I  think  we  ought  to  have 
this  school,  and  to  tell  you  the  steps  I  am  taking  to  carry 
out  the  plan.  I  wish  it  might  be  possible  for  every  one  of 
us  to  have  some  share.  A  dozen  men  came  over  to  the 
office  when  I  reported  that  there  was  a  surplus  in  our 
club's  accounts  and  urged  that  the  surplus  be  turned  over 
to  the  school.  And  in  accordance  with  these  propositions 
I  am  going  to  close  by  m-aking  a  proposition  to  you. 

(The  club  here  voted  unanimously  by  standing  here- 
after to  devote  all  its  surplus  receipts  to  the  work  of  the 
school,  and,  the  prolonged  cheering  with  which  the  vote 
was  received  having  subsided,  Mr.  Mills  continued.) 

I  stood  beside  a  mighty  river,  the  river  of  our  civiliza- 
tion.   I  was  looking  over  the  edge  of  a  precipice.    Deep 


THE     people's     university.  183 

below  me  tli^  deep  and  rapid  current  of  the  river  hurried 
on.  On  its  bosom  were  the  wrecks  of  a  miUion  Hves.  The 
roar  of  its  machinery,  the  fury  of  its  forges,  the  hurr>'  of 
its  busin-ess,  the  strife  of  its  commerce,  the  bitterness  of 
its  social  hfe,  the  teeming  millions  of  the  human  race  in 
the  darkness  were  hurrying  on.  I  looked  the  other  way. 
There  were  green  fields,  there  were  the  green  trees,  there 
was  the  ripening  fruit,  there  was  the  peaceful  city,  there 
was  the  laughter  of  children,  but  no  cry  of  despair.  There 
were  temples  of  industry,  but  no  prisons.  Men  both 
studied  and  toiled,  but  there  was  no  place  where  they 
were  overworked  on  the  one  hand  and  underfed  on  the 
other.  I  saw  the  new  city  coming  down  out  of  the  skies. 
By  the  side  of  its  peaceful  river,  which  was  the  River  of 
the  Water  of  Life,  I  saw  rising  the  splendid  structure  of 
the  New  Jerusalem.  I  turned  with  anguish  from  the  woe 
that  fills  the  life  of  the  world.  I  turned  with  joy  to  the  vis- 
ion that  had  been  shown  me,  and  I  prayed  out  of  a  full 
heart  that  in  some  way,  somewhere,  somehow,  I  might 
have  some  share  in  drying  up  the  waters  of  this  awful 
River  of  Death,  and  in  building  the  New  City  with  its 
life  and  its  joy. 


GRAND    ARMY    ADDRESS,     DELIVERED    AT 
KANKAKEE,  MAY  30,  1896. 

Veterans  of  the  Civil  War  and  my  Fellow  Citizens  ini 
this  republic  which  the&e  veterans  fought  to  preserve: 

In  addressing  you  to-day  I  shall  undertake  to  con- 
sider some  of  the  factors  which  played  an^  important  part 
in  the  civil  war,  and  which,  nevertheless,  are  all  too  fre- 
quently overlooked  in  the  study  of  that  terrible  event. 
Among  thes'e  neglected  factors  I  shall  mention  the  real 
cause  of  the  civil  war,  the  real  traitors  of  those  days,  the 
real  force  which  made  victory  possible — the  private  sol- 
dier, and  the  wom>en  of  the  civil  war. 

Thirty-five  years  ago,  when  the  nxDise  of  battle  was 
just  beginning  and  people  were  looking  with  amazemient 
into  each  other's  faces  and  asking  w^iat  all  this  trouble 
was  about, — what  various  answers'  were  given!  How  dif- 
ferent was  the  reply  made  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  by 
JefTerson  Davis'!  How  diiTerent  was  the  reply  made  by 
the  Democratic  and  the  Republican  champion  of  the 
Union!  cause!  How  different  the  reply  of  the  Republican' 
party,  the  rebuilt,  reborn  Whig  party  of  Webster,  Choate 
and  Clay,  and  the  remnants  of  that  old  organization  in  its; 
silver-gray  complaint  against  the  civil  war! 

What  caused  the  war?  The  abolitionists  were  hated 
and  blani'ed  and  persecuted  because  they  had  caused  so 
great  a  disturbance,  had  brought  on  so  terrible  a  catas- 
trophe. You  remember  when  Republicans  were  not  Re- 
publicans, they  were  "black"  RepubHcans>;  and  in  the 
peculiar  intoniation  with  which  these  words  were  spoken 
thirty-fiv-e  years  ago  the  Northern  citizen  not  a  Repub- 
lican, not  in  sympathy  with  the  war,  expressed  his  hatred 
for  the  people  he  blamed  for  making  v/ar. 


GRAND     ARMY     ADDRESS.  185 

And  yet  I  am  per&uaded  that  n-cither  of  thes'C,  nor  all 
tof^ether,  bore  the  sole  responsibility  or  cant  be  held  ac- 
countable in  history  to  be  blamed  or  praised  as  the  lead- 
infj  causes  of  the  civil  war. 

There  are  two  forces  at  work  in  the  world.  One  seeks 
not  its  own,  the  other  seeks  nothing  else.  One  serves  it- 
self and  worships  property,  the  other  serves  humanity 
and  worships  God.  One  believes  that  men  are  better 
than  things  and  exalts  manhood  above  "life  or  death,  or 
height  or  depth  or  principality  or  power,  or  any  other 
creature;"  the  other  believes  that  things  are  better  than 
nven,  and  that  millions  of  dollars  are  of  more  value  than 
millions  of  people.  These  forces  have  been  struggling 
against  each  other,  the  one  in  its  long  career  of  oppres- 
sion and  self-aggrandizement,  the  other  in  its  long  career 
of  heroism  and  self-sacrifice.  The  civil  war  was  but  a 
spirited  passage  at  arms  in  this  continuous  struggle,  be- 
ginning with  the  life  of  our  race,  and  bo  close  only  when 
its  men  and  its  institutions  shall  awake  in  the  perfected 
likeness  of  the  Son  of  Man.  The  civil  war  did  not  occur 
because  the  men  south  of  Alason  and  Dixon's  line  were 
base  beyond  their  day  and  generation,  nor  because  the 
multitude  of  people  north  of  that  line  were  all  self-sacri- 
ficing, heroic  and  humane.  It  occurred  because  in  the 
world's  growth,  in  the  advancemtenft  of  human  interest, 
the  old  constitutions,  the  old  forms,  the  old  usages  had 
grown  to  be  a  shell  with  too  narrow  chambers,  within  the 
bosom  of  which  the  bursting  bud  of  a  new  life  was  strug- 
gling for  the  sunlight  of  a  better  day.  It  was  the  infinite 
misfortune  of  the  men  who  fought  on  the  one  side  of  this 
struggle  that  their  cause  was  based  on  old  forms,  old 
rights,  old  constitutions,  the  sacredness  of  which  must 
be  maintained,  though  the  blight  and  wrong  of  measure- 
less oppression  and  the  agony  and  ruin  of  nimiberless 
human  beings  should  be  involved.  It  was  the  infinite 
glory  of  the  other  side,  the  side  on  which  these  veterans 
bore  arms,  that  to  them  the  new  life  coming  was  more 
sacred  than  the  old,  which  ha^  fulfilled  its  purpose  and 
was  ready  to  vanish  away.  The  one  was  ready  to  main- 
tain the  rights  and  the  forms  of  society,  though  human 


1 86  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

interest  should  be  sacrificed  and  human  life  perish.  The 
Other  was  ready  to  sacrifice  the  form's,  the  authorities,  the 
constitutions,  the  usages,  no  matter  how  ancient,  no  mat- 
ter how  strongly  fortified,  no  matter  how  many  mien  or 
measures  were  on  the  other  side;  they  were  ready  to  sac- 
rifice 'even  their  own  lives,  in  order  that  the  life  of  the 
race  might  move  upward  unhindered  and  unharmed.  And 
these  two  forces — the  one  struggling  to  make  society 
safe  as  it  was,  and  the  other  to  make  it  what  the  faith  of 
the  world  believed  it  ought  to  be,  crossed  each  other's 
paths;  the  result  was  the  civil  war. 

Again,  thirty  years  have  been  years  enough  for  the 
passions  of  the  civil  war  to  soibside,  for  the  irritation  arnd 
the  hatreds  of  the  awful  struggle  to  loosen  their  grip  upon 
us,  and  to  enable  nien  of  all  sections  and  parties  to  look 
calmly  and  kindly  into  each  other's  faces  and  be  friends. 
That  there  were  men  in  every  Southern  State  who  vicious- 
ly and  selfishly  conspired  to  destroy  our  government  I 
do  not  doubt.    That  there  were  real  and  genuine  traitors, 
and  real  and  genuine  patriots  who  wore  both  blue  and 
gray  is  the  final  word  which  must  be  calmly  spoken.    It 
was  only  in  passion  that  we  said  that  a  citizen  born  even 
in  a  Northern  State  who  publicly  and  frankly  and  every- 
where avowed  his  sympathy  with  his  readiness  to  defend 
the  Southern  cause,  it  was  only  in  passion  that  we  called 
him  a  traitor  as  we  sent  him  through  the  lines  to  the  side 
where    he    belonged.     His     comvictioms    were    wrong; 
it  was  the  verdict  of     these  soldiers  then,  it  is  the  ver- 
dict    of     history     forever,    that  he  was  on  the  wrong 
side,  but  he  was  loyal  to  the  side  to  which  he  belonged. 
According  to  the  laws  of  nations,  according  to  the  inter- 
national law  that  rules  the  world,  and  because  of  which 
Grant  refused  the  arrest  of  Lee,  and  Davis  could  not  be 
tried  for  treason- — because  of  the  law  expounded  by  Glad- 
stone in  his  defense  of  the  proposed  English  recognition 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy — by  the  authority  of  this 
law,  whatever  may  have  been  true  at  the  beginning,  the 
men  whose  armies  these  veterans'  helped  to  overcome 
never  laid  down  their  arnifs  until  they  had  first  achieved 
their  military  and  their  civil  right  to  be. 


GRAND     ARMY     ADDRESS.  187 

It  is  the  glory  of  these  veterans,  not  that  they  opposed 
and  overbore  base  and  unworthy  men,  but  in  the  open 
field,  standing  face  to  face  with  brave  men',  opposed  by 
skillful  leadership,  beaten  in  a  hundred  fields,  under  a 
scorching  sun,  in  a  strange  land,  where  pestilence  and 
fever  were  frequently  more  fatal  than  the  foeman's  steel, 
nevertheless  unfalteringly  preserved  their  courage  and 
their  strengt'h  until  at  last  they  snatched  from  an  army 
unconquerable  in  its  spirit,  unmatched  in'  its  leadership, 
that  victory  which  gave  to  these  veterans'  the  victory  and 
the  honor  which  must  stand  forever. 

But  there  were  traitors  in  those  days,  men  who  were 
loud  in  their  pretensions  of  loyalty  to  a  great  cause  only 
to  betray  the  cause  itself  in  an  overwdielming  loyalty  to 
what  they  conceived  to  be  their  personal  interests.  The 
boys  who  from  shop,  and  farm,  and  counter  went  to  the 
front,  and  dared  to  die  that  humanity's  life  might  go  for- 
ward, were  heroes.  But  what  of  the  men  who  sent  them 
there  to  be  clothed  in  shoddy  uniforms,  to  be  fed  on 
wormv  rations,  to  ride  in  the  death  charge  of  battle  a 
horse  that  had  been  fitted  for  the  market,  not  for  the 
battle  field?  Remember  how  from  every  hamlet  the  brav- 
est and  the  strongest  and  the  best  freely  gave  their  lives 
for  their  countr}-'s  life;  and  how  in  a  great  conflict  where 
the  vital  principle  for  which  the  North  stood  was  a  con- 
flict for  men  above  things — that  even  in  this  conflict  the 
same  government  which  accepted  these  men  as  they  came 
bringing  the  gift  of  themselves,  and  sent  them  to  go  oni  a 
march  that  v/ent  through  the  valley  of  death,  an<l  all  too 
frequently  the  grave  itself,  was  able  only  to  borrow  the 
means  to'  obtain  the  bayonets  which  they  carried  in  the 
strife.  These  veterans  gave  their  lives  to  save  a  country 
v.hich  was  able  to  obtain  the  tools  with  which  the  desper- 
ate task  was  undertaken — not  on  the  basis  of  the  free  gift 
of  the  patriot — but  was'  compelled  to  carry  the  nation^s 
honor  to  the  pawn-shops  of  the  market  and  make  a  pawn- 
shop bargain  for  the  things  with  which  to  feed  and  clothe 
and  arm  diese  men  v.hile  they  gave  their  lives  to  save  her 
life.  These  men-  said,  **A  wrong  is  in  the  land,  we  will  die 
for  the  rieht,"  and  Lincoln  called  for  money  to  feed  and 


l88  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

clothe  the  men'  who  offered  their  lives,  only  to  be  an^ 
sv^ered  with  an  attack  from  the  rear  more  desperat'C  and 
more  mipatriotic,  and  during  the  hours  of  that  awful 
crisis  more  dangerous  than  any  volleys  from  across  the 
line.  The  great  heart  of  the  North  said,  ''Men  are  bett'er 
than  things.  Manhood  shall  be  exalted;  slavery,  which 
vests  a  property  right  in  a  human  being,  and  the  institu- 
tions which  protect  and  defend,  law  or  no  law,  constitu- 
tion or  no  constitution,  slavery  must  die."  But  the  con- 
tractors and  money  changers^  said,  "The  great  heart  of 
the  North  is  in  earnest,  she  is-  struggling  in  the  death 
throes  of  a  new  life,  she  will  pay  any  price,  she  will  submit 
to  any  wrong  which  we  may  be  able  to  impose  upon  her, 
rather  than  abandon  the  one  fixed  purpose  which  fills 
all  her  life  and  absorbs  all  her  powers.  Now  is  the  time 
to  make  a  bargain.  While  others  are  giving  their  lives 
we  will  look  after  our  things." 

Over  the  line  at  the  South  brave  young  men  were  giv- 
ing everything  that  State  linesi  might  not  be  obliterated, 
and  that  the  integrity  of  Statehood  might  be  preserved. 
That  was  their  explanation  of  the  civil  w^ar. 

At  the  front  on  our  side  of  the  line  young  men  were 
giving  up  their  lives.  By  the  lonely  sentry,  the  forced 
march,  the  perilous  undertaking  of  the  scout,  in  the 
charge  and  shock  of  battle — written  in  words  of  fire  across 
the  sky  made  black- with  the  clouds  of  war,  the  North 
answered  in  a  cry  terrible  in  its  rage,  measureless  in  its 
passion,  resistless  in  its  determination — manhood  shall  be 
exalted!  manhood  shall  be  exalted! 

But  in  the  rear  of  that  camp,  skirting  the  commissary 
department,  hoarding  and  counting  its  gold,  were  a  com- 
pany of  men  who  scorned  the  enthusiasm  of  the  men  at 
the  front,  and  made  bargains  for  themselves  at  a  measure- 
less loss  for  our  country's  treasure,  and  built  countless 
burdens  for  the  returning  soldiers,  and  their  children's 
children  after  them,  to  bear  in  helpless  penury  and  wrong. 
Surely  there  were  traitors  in  those  days. 

And  then  again,  in  reviewing  the  civil  war  I  believe 
that  the  usual  historian,  in  noting  the  honorable  services 
of  its  great  leaders,  does  not  sufficiently  appreciate  the 


GRAND     ARMY     ADDRESS.  1 89 

services  of  the  private  soldier.  It  is  well  for  us  to  remem- 
ber that  had  Lincoln  never  been,  had  Grant  never  com*- 
nianded  an  army,  had  McClellan  never  dug  any  trenches, 
had  Sherman  never  made  his  victorious  march  to  the  s^a, 
had  Jefferson  Davis  never  been'  boni',  had  Robert  E.  Lee 
n-ever  been-  a  soldier,  had  Stonewall  Jacksom  remained 
forever  a  teacher,  had  no  body  of  assembled  legislators 
ever  listened  to  the  eloquence  of  Robert  Toombs,  had 
Alexander  Stephens  been  a  blacksmith  rather  than  a 
statesman,  the  civil  war  would  have  been  all  the  same. 
The  great  issues  that  then  arose  for  settlement  the  world 
was  ripe  to  deal  with,  and  deal  with  them  it  must.  Had 
the  statesmen  in  our  legislative  halls  and  in  our  executive 
chaml^ers.  had  the  leaders  on  every  battlefield,  had  every 
name  that  history  knows  and  that  the  world  will  remem- 
ber been  stricken  from  the  list,-  out  of  the  very  ground 
others  would  have  arisen  to  undertake  the  tasks  they  did, 
and  to  win  the  victories  they  won.  The  commanding  offi- 
cer in  the  civil  war  rendered  great  and  important  services. 
It  is  not  mecessary  to  belittle  the  leader  who  commanded 
the  charge  in  order  to  exalt  the  brave  men  who  carried 
their  blades  of  steel  to  the  last  ditch,  and  died  with  death's 
grip  still  holding  them  by  their  sides.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  civil  war  the  commanders  who  remained  loyal  to 
the  North  and  who  had  seen  military  service  w^re  old  in 
years  and  ready  to  retire.  When  the  war  was  over  the 
railway  engineer  of  the  Southern  Ohio,  and  the  tanner  of 
Galena,  Illinois,  and  others  who  were  toiling  in  the  ranks, 
with  as  great  hearts  and  as  great  purposes  before  as  after, 
had  risen  out  of  the  ranks  into  positions  of  leadership,  and 
their  names  can  never  be  forgotten. 

But  the  item  of  most  especial  credit  for  Grant  and  Mc- 
Clellan and  Hancock  and  Sheridan  is'  that  these  leaders 
rose  from  among  the  ranks  of  men  of  such  metal,  such 
character,  such  ability,  that  had  all  these  names  and  ten 
thousand  others,  brave  and  strong  as  they,  been  stricken 
from  the  list  of  soldiers,  that  still  out  of  the  ranks  men 
as  brave  of  heart  and  strong  of  mind  and  as  capable  of 
leadership  as  they,  were  ready  for  the  tasks  they  did  and 
able  to  win  the  victories  they  won. 


igo  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

It  was  said  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks  who  accom- 
panied Cyrus  in  his  rebelUous  expedition,  made  immortal 
by  the  narrative  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis,  it  is  said  of  his 
te^n  thousand  Greeks  that  there  was  not  one  in  the  ranks 
who  was  not  quaUfied  to  be  a  leader.  The  honor  of  Xen- 
ophon  was  not  that  in  the  hour  when  repeated  disasters 
seemed  to  overthrow  every  hope  and  destroy  every  pros- 
pect, that  he  was  the  leader  of  a  forlorn  hope,  but  he  be- 
came the  leader  of  ten  thousand  equals,  and  as  the  master 
of  ten  thousand  miaster  mindsi  led  the  way  to  their  de- 
liverance. 

Sleeping  in  graves  that  will  never  be  known,  resting 
in  quiet  nooks  where  the  vision  of  their  bleaching  bones 
will  never  fall  on  mortal  eye,  perished  in  the  rebel  prison, 
died  at  their  post  as  lonely  sentries  in  the  night,  hunger- 
ing and  famishing,  burning  with  fevers  and  afflicted  with 
infirmities  from  some  hard-fought  field,  or  dying  unno- 
ticed in  the  Federal  hospital,  and  perhaps  unremembered 
— in  the  silent,  unmarked,  unknown,  forgotten  resting 
places  of  a  thousand  Southern  fields  are  the  mortal  rem- 
nants of  a  whole  army  of  unknown  heroes,  who  like  the 
Greeks  with  Xenophon  were  able  to  command,  but  in^ 
stead  paid  for  the  life  of  their  country  "the  last  full  meas- 
ure of  devotion,"  and  by  whose  sacrifice  alone  our  nation 
lives.  They  were  Grants  and  Lincolns  still  marching  in 
the  ranks.  No  marble  tablet,  no  roll  of  honor,  no  monu- 
ment of  granite,  no  memorials  which  sweet  voices  may 
sing  or  eloquent  words  may  speak  shall  ever  be  able  to  tell 
the  story  of  their  honor,  or  do  justice  to  their  memories. 

And,  finally,  I  would  mention  the  women  in  the  civil 
war.  By  the  women  of  the  civil  war  I  do  not  mean  the 
hospital  nurse,  nor  the  army  spy,  nor  the  woman  at  the 
front.  Their  praises  have  been  spoken  and  their  honors 
told,  and  many  of  their  names  will  live  in  history,  ranking 
along  with  their  brothers  who  marshaled  the  armies  and 
fought  the  battles  of  the  civil  war.  The  women  of  the  civil 
war  whom  I  have  in  mind  were  the  old  mothers,  the 
young  brides,  and  the  waiting  maidens,  who,  excluded 
from  the  field  of  battle,  gave  more  than  they  who  gave 
themselves.    These  women  of  the  civil  war,  real  patriots 


GRAND     ARMY     ADDRESS.  I9I 

in  what  they  gave,  in  what  they  suffered,  and  in  what  they 
did!  When  these  veterans  joined  the  army  there  was 
martial  music,  there  were  gay  uniforms,  and  there  was  the 
story  of  the  camp,  there  were  the  honors  of  the  field,  there 
was  companionship  everywhere.  You  came  down  from 
the  farm,  out  from  the  counting-room,  over  from  the 
shop,  and  while  you  wrote  your  name  your  neighbors,  the 
boys  already  on  record,  cheered  you  on  to  the  deed  you 
did  ;  but  to  the  wife  and  mother  you  were  leaving  in  a  lone- 
ly home,  in  your  absence  robbed  of  its  keenest  jov,  ihere 
were  no  uniforms  to  capture  them,  there  were  no  camp 
stories  to  beguile  them,  there  was  no  enthusiastic  cheering 
to  encourage  them — they  were  separated  from  each  other 
as  well  as  from  their  loved  ones,  and  in  stout-hearted  lone- 
liness, single-handed  and  unhelped.  they  gave  more  than 
their  own  lives  for  the  life  of  the  world^  i\t  the  front,  in 
camp,  there  was  companionship;  on  the  forced  march 
there  were  men-  before  you,  behind  you,  all  around  you. 
There  were  cheers  for  the  flag;  even  the  horrible  hazard 
of  war  itself  had  its  fascination  to  capture,  to  stimulate, 
and  to  make  you  strong.  In  the  hour  of  strife  the  clamor 
of  arms,  the  shouts  of  the  ol^ficers,  the  burst  of  shells,  the 
roar  of  the  cannon' — even  the  shriek  of  the  dying,  helped 
you  to  forget  and  to  endure  the  conflict. 

But  in  some  lonely  attic  chamber,  in  som'C  half-de- 
serted house,  some  wife  or  mother  for  the  long  years  of 
that  awful  conflict  waited  and  toiled  and  prayed  with  the 
agony  of  a  breaking  heart,  with  the  courage  that  would 
not  take  back  its  gift,  but  had  learned  the  awful  truth  that 
where  our  treasure  is  there  are  our  hearts  also.  Living 
half  a  life  in  the  weary  loneliness  of  their  uncheered  toil, 
they  struggled  on  to  do  the  task  at  home  which  made  the 
saving  of  the  nation  possible. 

Back  at  the  beginning  of  my  lifetime,  the  earliest 
memory  of  my  childhood  is  a  little  picture  drawn  in  the 
Adriondack  Mountains.  There  was  a  man  and  his  wife 
and  four  small  children  in  the  yard  in  front  of  a  hunter's 
cabin,  and  in  the  cradle  inside  was  a  little  child  two  weeks 
old.  Something  was  the  matter  in  the  familv.  there  was 
strong  crying  and  many  tears,  and  then  the  man  broke 


1 92  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

away  from  the  embraces  of  his  wife  and  children,  went 
hurriedly  down  the  mountain  path  and  disappeared  in  the 
distance.  That  man  was  my  father.  Our  mother  turned, 
to  tell  us  that  he  had  gone  to  the  war.  We  could  not  un- 
derstand what  going  to  the  war  meant.  We  have  all  lived 
to  learn  what  it  involved.  My  father  was  nearly  four  years 
in  the  service.  He  was  in  the  seven  days'  fight  before 
Richmond,  he  was  at  Antietam,  and  at  Gettysburg,  he 
roasted  under  the  Southern  suns,  and  fretted  in  the  South- 
ern swamps,  and  waited  in  a  Federal  hospital  for  the  hour 
of  the  grand  review.  He  is  living  still,  and  is  smitten 
every  hour  with  the  infirmities  induced  by  his  army  ser- 
vice. But  with  all  the  marching  and  the  waiting,  with 
all  the  strife  at  the  front  and  with  all  of  the  suffering  since, 
I  do  not  believe  his  service  is  to  be  compared  with  the 
brave  little  woman  who  stayed  in  the  mountain  home, 
who  toiled  in  the  field,  who  kept  her  children  and  herself 
bravely  and  patiently  through  the  years,  until  the  war 
being  over  he  not  only  came  back  from  helping  to  save 
the  country,  but  a  home  had  been  preserved  into  which 
he  came,  with  the  social,  peaceful  forces  of  our  marvelous 
American  life  to  help  to  make  this  land  of  ours  in  the  years 
of  peace  greater  and  stronger  and  better  than  even  in  her 
years  of  w^ar. 

Young  men  and  women !  The  men  and  the  women  of 
the  terrible  war  were  our  fathers  and  our  mothers.  Our 
lives  were  cast  in  the  mold  of  their  greatness.  To-day,  as 
ever,  the  warfare  between  the  forces  which  exalt  things 
above  men  on  the  one  side,  and  those  which  exalt  man- 
hood above  everything  else  on  the  other,  still  wages. 
There  is  not  an  hour  that  passes,  there  it  not  a  field  in 
which  men  toil,  there  is  not  a  shop  in  which  we  listen  to 
the  hoarse  music  of  the  mighty  machinery,  there  is  not  a 
market  in/  which  men  gather,  there  is'  not  a  place  in  which 
our  people  assemble,  there  is  not  a  task  that  we  can  un- 
dertake, where  the  forward  and  the  backward,  the  higher 
and  the  lower,  the  baser  and  the  better,  are  not  there  and 
in  this  everlasting  struggle.  At  Gettysburg  there  was  no 
fiercer  fight  between  the  liberator  and  the  oppressor  than 
goes  on  every  hour,  than  is  undertaken  as  a  part  of  every 


GRAND    ARMY    ADDRESS.  I93 

task  in  life's  daily  toil.  My  prayer  for  you,  my  ambition 
for  myself,  is  to  be  as  good  a  soldier  in  my  place  as  these 
veterans  were  in  theirs. 


HENRY  GEORGE. 

Adam  was  the  father  of  the  human  race,  but  Adam 
Smith  was  the  father  of  pohtical  economy.  But  the  young 
child  born  from  the  loins  of  Adam  Smith  was  misled,  cor- 
rupted, brutalized,  not  only  by  his  father,  but  by  Malthus, 
Ricardo,  McCullough,  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  the  rest  of 
the  Economists. 

Thomas  Carlyle  sneered  at  political  economy  as  a 
philosophy  of  dirt,  and  dubbed  it  the  ''Dismal  Science." 

Henry  George  found  it,  like  the  prodigal  son,  coarse, 
heartless,  feeding  on  husks,  living  among  and  promoting 
the  interests  of  the  great  commercial  hog  pastures  of  the 
earth.  He  captured  it,  transformed  it,  put  a  heart  into 
it,  and  made  it  stand  for  men,  not  dollars,  for  the  welfare 
of  the  race,  not  simply  for  the  creation  and  accumulation 
of  wealth  without  a  purpose  and  without  a  heart. 

I  knew  him  a  little,  I  loved  him  with  a  full  heart.  I 
loved  him  for  his  early  career  of  hardship.  A  cabin  boy 
at  sea,  a  sailor,  a  printer's  apprentice,  a  tramp  without  em- 
ployment, and  without  where  to  lay  his  head,  save  in  a 
manger  at  Sacramento,  as  the  Nazarene  had  slept  in  Beth- 
lehem. 

I  loved  him  for  his  adventurous  spirit.  Three  times 
at  sea,  and  once  around  the  world  as  a  sailor  before  the 
mast,  a  gold  hunter  along  the  Frazier  River,  having 
worked  his  way  around  Cape  Horn,  and  all  while  yet  in 
his  teens.  I  loved  him  because  when  he  loved  a  woman 
who  returned  his  affection. he  married  her  without  delay, 
though  he  went  in  debt  for  his  board,  borrowed  a  coat 
and  vest  for  the  occasion.  Surely  his  marriage  was  at  the 
beginning  what  it  proved  to  be  at  the  end,  a  union  of  two 
lives  for  the  sake  of  each  other  only,  and  for  nO'  other 

194 


HENRY      GEORGE.  195 

reason  whatsoever.  Twice  he  enHsted  in  the  service  of 
liberty  in  behalf  of  Mexico.  He  was  a  patriot  at  the  be- 
ginning. I  loved  him  because  he  loved  his  country,  and 
his  countrymen  were  as  much  under  a  Mexican  sky.  as 
under  our  own. 

I  loved  him  for  his  determination  to  have  his  say. 
The  Journal,  the  Transcript,  the  Herald,  the  Recorder, 
the  Evening  Post,  the  Ledger,  the  State,  and  the  Standard 
were  among  the  enterprises  which  he  established  in  order 
that  he  might  be  heard.  Over  and  over  again  he  built  a 
journal  that  ht  might  speak  to  the  people,  and  again  and 
again  conspiracy,  intrigue  having  secured  control  of  th^ 
business,  endeavored  to  control  his  pen.  In  Sacramento 
his  paper  was  more  widely  read,  more  influential  than 
any  other  on  the  Pacific  coast,  but  he  was  at  war  with 
the  Central  Pacific.  They  could  turn  him  out  on  the 
street,  but  instead  they  offered  him  large  sums  to  cease 
his  opposition  and  speak  in  their  behalf.  He  preferred  to 
go  on  the  street.  I  love  a  man  who  is  brave  enough  to 
fail  himself,  rather  than  to  share  in  the  robbery  of  others. 

\Mien  he  had  v/ritten  ''Progress  and  Poverty,"  and 
the  author  found  himself  so  far  ahead  of  his  age  that  no 
publisher  was  willing  to  undertake  the  risk  of  placing  his 
work  before  the  puhlic,  undaunted  he  set  the  type  him- 
self, worked  ofif  the  first  proof  sheets,  and  seconding  his 
thinking  with  his  own  manual  labor,  unrewarded  and  un- 
heeded produced  a  sufiBcient  edition  to  place  his  thoughts 
before  a  small  company  of  thinking  men,  and  the  new 
philosophy  wrought  the  rest. 

I  loved  him  for  his  tender  heart.  In  the  midst  of  his 
newspaper  enterprises  on  the  Pacific  coast  he  went  to 
Xow  York.  He  had  come  from  the  open  country  of  the 
West.  The  contrast  between  the  free  life  of  the  West  and 
the  squalor  and  suffering  of  the  overcrowded  districts  of 
the  great  city  so  enlisted  his  heart,  that  rest  was  impossi- 
ble, that  he  could  not  content  himself  until  first  some  solu- 
tion could  be  found,  which  should  provide  a  possible 
remedy  for  the  cruel  wrongs  under  which  his  fellows 
suffered. 

He  did  as  others  have  done.     He  turned  his  attention 


ig6  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

to  the  study  of  economics.  He  went  through  the  dusty 
volumes  only  to  be  told  that  the  student  of  economics 
must  abandon  sentiment;  that  goodness,  that  morality, 
that  mercy,  that  all  the  better  attributes  of  our  human 
nature  have  no  place,  and  can  have  no  share  in  the  eco- 
nomic philosophy. 

Adam  Smith  had  taught  that  wages  depended  upon 
the  bounty  of  the  capitalist,  that  necessarily  the  amount 
of  money  available  for  paying  wages  was  limited  by  the 
volume  of  capital,  that  each  added  worker  in  order  that 
wages  might  be  possible  must  divide  with  those  already 
at  the  task. 

Malthus  taught,  again,  that  population  increases  by 
a  ratio  faster  than  it  is  possible  to  increase  production, 
that  each  toiler  could  produce,  as  toilers  multiplied,  only 
a  smaller  product  than  when  the  laborers  were  fewer. 
It  was  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  as  applied  to  pro- 
ducts, the  law  of  increasing  returns  as  applied  to  popu- 
lations. 

Ricardo  taught  that  rents  were  the  result  of  the  com- 
petitions of  people  for  possession  of  the  more  favorable 
locations,  that  as  society  increased  the  locations  in  the 
great  centers  of  population  were  made  enormously  val- 
uable, not  because  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  not  because 
of  mineral  or  agricultural  wealth,  but  purely  because  of 
location,  and  that  rents  were  the  difference  between  the 
most  desirable  and  the  least  desirable  locations.  And 
as  the  populations  increased  the  value  of  the  central  loca- 
tions must  continue  to  multiply,  and  the  least  productive 
and  abandoned  portions  of  the  earth  come  into  further 
use.  Thus  the  increasing  of  populations  meant  forever  an 
increase  of  the  price  that  the  many,  who  own  no  share  of 
the  earth,  must  pay  to  the  few  who  do  own  it  for  the 
privilege  of  existence. 

Not  out  cf  the  books,  not  merely  out  of  his  splendid 
intelligence,  but  from  the  great  heart  of  the  new  teacher 
came  his  answer.  It  is  forever  true  that  the  gray  matter 
under  a  man's  hat  is  never  so  near  the  truth  as  a  warm 
heart  in  his  bosom.  ''Whosoever  shall  will  to  do  the  will 
of  God  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,"  is  the  statement  of 


HENRY      GEORGE.  I97 

an  old  truth,  is  the  statement  of  a  philosophic  principle 
which  must  forever  abide.  Henry  George's  interest  in 
economics  was  not  born  out  of  his  love  for  speculation, 
out  of  his  keen  relish  for  argument,  out  of  a  desire  to 
triumph  in  a  worldwide  dispute.  He  came  to  the  study 
of  his  subject  with  a  bleeding  heart.  He  was  looking 
for  a  way  of  escape,  not  for  himself,  but  for  those  who, 
in  utter  helplessness,  sat  under  the  gloom  of  the  festering 
tenements,  and  'whose  only  consolation  was  found-  in  the 
heartless  and  helpless  voice  of  the  dismal  science  of 
economics. 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  he  took  up  the  subject  of 
wages.  He  disputed  the  positions  of  Adam  Smith. 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  said,  "Labor  is  the  superior  of 
capital,  goes  before  capital,  is  the  creator  of  capital." 
Henry  George  wrought  this  utterance  of  the  statesman 
into  a  philosophic  formula.  He  disputed  that  capital  pays 
wages,  he  insisted  that  the  wage-worker  produces  by  his 
toil  all  that  he  receives  in  wages,  and  that  the  returns  of 
the  capitalist  even,  is  a  share  of  the  products  of  th-^  toilers. 

He  gave  his  attention  to  the  doctrines  of  Malthus, 
not  in  the  impossible  form  in  w'hich  it  was  first  stated  by 
Malthus,  but  he  followed  it  as  it  passed  under  the  pen  of 
John  Stuart  Mill.  He  denied  the  main  ccMention,  that  as 
toilers  multiply  per  capita  of  products  must  correspond- 
ingly decline;  and  he  further  denied  that  there  is  any  indi- 
cation in  history,  m  observation,  or  in  any  law  of  our 
nature,  that  there  is  any  probability  at  any  time  that  the 
world's  population  will  exceed  its  resources.  ^IcCullough 
had  said  that  in  Ireland  there  w^ere  eight  millions  of  peo- 
ple, while  the  natural  resources  were  only  suf^cient  for 
the  support  of  four  millions,  and  had  contended  that  Irish 
suffering  was  the  result.  Henry  George  answered,  that 
in  the  days  when  Irish  populations  had  been  only  two 
millions,  half  as  many  as  McCullough  contended  could  be 
provided  for  with  comfort,  the  suffering  of  Ireland  had 
been  greater,  even,  than  when  the  population  had  become 
four  times  as  great.  He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
possibilities  of  large  families  in  continuous  succession, 
was  a  possibility  which  had  never  been  realized,  and  about 


igS  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

■which  we  need  not  be  anxious.    He  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  succeeding  war,  famine,  and  in  sparsely  settled 
countries  great  families,  rapidly  increasing  populations 
had  been  the  rule.     Not  so,  however,  when  populations 
had  become  dense,  provided  a  reasonable  degree  of  com- 
fort had  been  maintained  among  the  people.     Malthus 
had  insisted  that  a  population  impossible  to  support  would 
result,  except  poverty  and  famine  and  war  and  pestilence 
should  come  to  keep  the  populations  within  the  limit  of  a 
possible  support.     Henry  George  answered  that  every 
one  of  these  things  was  speedily  followed  by  an  unusual 
activity  of  the  reproductive  processes,  by  which  the  earth 
was  again  peopled,  and  that  famine  and  war  and  pestilence 
could  be  no  lasting  remedy.     On  the  other  hand,  taking 
up  the  old  saying,  "A  rich  man  has  luck  and  a  poor  man 
children,"  he  maintained  by  an  argument  that  cannot  be 
answered,  that  sufifering  and  privation  tend  directly  to  in- 
crease, not  diminish,  populations.     He  reversed  the  fig- 
ures of  Malthus  by  which  Malthus  had  contended  that  if  a 
man  had  two  sons  and  they  tw^o  each  and  they  two  each, 
that  the  ratio  of  increase  would  be  one,  two,  four,  eight, 
sixteen,  thirty-two,  by  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that 
there  might  be  some  break  in  each  man  having,  two  sons, 
but  that  there  never  could  be  a  break  in  the  fact  that  each 
man  had  two  parents.     That  was  unavoidable,  and  as  each 
man  had  two  parents  the  ratio  backwards  counted  in  the 
same  way.     I  had  two  parents,  each  of  them  two,  and  each 
of  them  two,  and  so  on  in  the  ratio  running  two,  four, 
eight,  sixteen.     Instead  of  being  placed  in  a  world  where 
the  limit  of  support  is  made  so  narrow  that  there  is  no 
room  for  the  people,  he  insisted  that  we  have  no  indication 
in  any  way  or  anywhere  that  the  race  will  ever  or  could 
ever  exceed  the  resources  which  have  been  provided  for 
its  support. 

The  theory  of  wages  which  made  the  worker  depend 
upon  the  capitalist  had  fallen.  The  theory  of  populations 
which  made  the  existence  of  any  of  us  depend  upon  the 
great  poverty  of  most  of  us  had  also  fallen.  What  about 
Ricardo's  rents?  The  answer  was  straight  and  simple. 
The  argument  of  Ricardo  seemed  to  be  unanswerable. 


HENRY     GEORGE.  199 

The  populations  had  created  the  rents,  but  if  sp,  then 
rents  should  belong  to  the  populations  which  created 
them. 

His  answer  to  Ricardo  was,  that  the  earth  belonged 
to  all  the  people,  not  to  a  portion  of  the  people.  And  if 
to  all  the  people,  if  one  in  this  generation  shall  not  oppress 
and  rob  another  of  his  own  generation,  then  never  shall 
the  living  generations  be  the  victims  of  those  already 
dead. 

Henry  George  was  not  only  a  great  economist,  but 
he  was  a  wise  citizen.  He  wanted  the  earth,  he  asked  for 
free  trade.  He  wanted  the  earth,  he  asked  for  public 
control  of  monopolies.  He  Avanted  the  earth,  he  died  in 
the  harness  lighting  for  a  three-cent  fare.  He  was  wise 
enough  to  fight  for  the  small  things  which  it  was  possible 
to  secure,  knowing  that  in  each  smaller  battle  all  the  issues 
of  the  larger  conflict  were  most  surely  hastening  for  their 
settlement.  The  local  issue  of  a  great  boss,  the  local 
wrong  of  a  great  monopoly,  the  local  evils  of  a  misgov- 
erned city,  these  were  not  the  questions  over  which  Henry 
George  was  contending,  and  for  the  sake  of  which  he  gave 
his  life.  These  were  simply  local  indications  of  a  universal 
disorder,  as  wide  as  the  race,  and  involving  the  welfare  of 
every  one  of  us,  and  of  our  children's  children  forever 
after  us. 

Henry  George  was  a  great  teacher.  The  spirit  and 
work  of  the  man  was  in  line  with  the  earth's  g^reat  teachers. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  final  acceptance  of  the 
Single  tax  as  a  sufficient  remedy,  he  has  at  least  taught 
three  lessons  which  must  forever  stand:  (i)  All  the  earth 
l^elongs  to  all  the  people.  (2)  Dead  men  cannot  own  any 
;hare  of  the  earth.  (3)  What  all  create  all  should  possess. 
1  loved  him  for  his  early  roughing  it,  for  his  advent- 
urous spirit,  for  his  determination  to  be  heard,  for  his 
tender  heart,  for  his  wis-e  philosophy,  for  his  good  citizen- 
ship, for  his  determination  to  know  no  master  save  the  one 
master  passion  of  his  life,  s-ervice  for  his  race. 


DIRECT  LEGISLATION. 

Some  time  all  men  will  do  what  is  ^ood  in  their  own 
eyes,  and  in  doing  so  will  at  the  same  time  do  what  is  good 
in  the  eyes  of  all.  But  that  day  is  some  time  ahead  yet, 
and  for  the  present  some  one  must  set  the  standards  for  all, 
and  compel  the  obedience  of  all,  regarding  those  matters 
which  directly  and  seriously  affect  the  welfare  of  all.  Who 
shall  fix  these  standards?  Who  shall  compel  the  obedi- 
ence of  all?  These  are  the  hard  questions  in  the  science  of 
politics. 

For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  always  clear 
that  the  majority  always  have  had  and  always  must  have  a 
natural  right  to  rule,  whether  that  means  the  rule  of 
justice,  or  the  rule  of  a  simple  amalgamation  of  all  things 
ignorant,  vicious  and  immoral.  It  is  true  that  no  king 
ever  had  a  right  to  rule  viciously,  no  matter  how  necessary 
his  single-handed  government  might  have  been.  It  is 
equally  true  that  majority  rule  can  have  no  right  to  enact 
iniquity  into  law,  and  by  the  voice  of  the  majority  of  all 
condemn  to  infamy  the  lives  of  any  portion. 

But  the  real  question  is  not  whether  might  or  right 
ought  to  rule,  but  by  what  means  shall  the  right  be  deter- 
mined. The  right  ought  to  rule.  No  one  disputes  it. 
But  who  shall  say  what  is  right  in  ail  the  mutual  relations 
and  interests  of  society?  Once  the  world  believed  that 
might  was  right.  That  the  right  to  rule  belonged,  of 
right,  to  the  strength  whereby  rule  was  possible — much 
as  the  business  world  now  holds  that  one's  ability  to  over- 
reach another  in  a  trade,  of  right  entitles  the  business 
scoundrel  to  the  pillage  of  his  own  rascality.  So  once  the 
power  of  a  long  arm  and  a  long  head  to  compel  the  obedi- 
ence of  others  was  held,  of  right,  to  justify  the  rule  of  the 


200 


DIRECT    LEGISLATION.  201 

ruffian,  and  to  require  the  loyal  obedience  of  his  victims. 
But  the  ruffians  were  numerous,  and  the  earth  -was  small, 
and  life  was  dear.  Instead  of  applying  their  own  doctrine 
of  might  and  right  among  themselves  they  compromised 
their  troubles,  declared  themselves  the  best  class,  the  noble 
order,  and  limited  in  a  way  the  brutality  of  their  relations 
to  each  other,  while  all  together  they  continued  to  regard 
all  the  earth  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  as  the  proper  vic- 
tims of  their  ambitions  and  their  greed.  The  world  of 
thought  and  of  conscience  now  knoiw  that  superior 
strength  gives  no  just  right  either  to  rule  or  to  oppress  the 
weak.  It  knows  that  superior  strength  is  only  an  added 
obligation,  not  an  added  opportunity  to  exact  service,  and 
that  in  any  other  relation  might  is  not  right,  but  wrong. 

But  right  has  a  right  to  rule.  The  mii^hty  have  no 
right  to  determine  what  the  right  is— who  has?  Intrigue 
has  almost  wholly  succeeded  force— the  world  is  ruled  by 
secret  bargains,  the  nature  of  which  is  revealed  to  the 
public  only  after  the  good  or  evil  has  been  forever  accom- 
plished. But  this  secret  bargaining  is  not  confined  to  the 
interests  which  involve  in  a  single  action  the  weal  or  woe 
of  a  contineni.  In  the  smallest  municipality  you  must  be 
either  on  the  inside  or  the  outside;  for  the  real  rule  is  for- 
ever vested  with  the  fellows  on  the  inside. 

We  have  substituted  for  the  rule  of  a  king  the  rule 
of  a  ring.  If  they  who  are  strong  shall  not  be  authorized 
to  determine  for  us  all  what  is  the  right,  in  order  that  the 
right  shall  be  accomplished,  shall  they  who  are  corrupt  un- 
dertake the  task  for  us?  The  trouble  with  the  king  is  and 
ever  has  been,  that  those  -who  enacted  the  laws  created 
by  the  laws  special  privileges  for  themselves.  They  have 
taken  by  the  authority  of  the  law  crown  jewels  for  them- 
selves, and  left  in  penury  the  very  workers  by  whose  toil 
the  possession  of  their  jewels  had  been  made  possible. 

The  trouble  with  the  ring  is  and  forever  has  been,  that 
they  who  control  the  machinery  of  society  use  that  ma- 
chinery under  the  authority  of  the  law  for  the  advancement 
of  personal  interests,  and  the  creation  of  private  fortunes, 
to  the  direct  injury  of  the  very  poor  under  whose  authority 
thev  themselves  have  come  to  place  and  power.    The 


202  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

trouble  alike  with  the  king  and  the  ring  is  that  one  com- 
pany of  people  are  creating  and  administering  lavv^s  for 
others  to  obey,  and  under  a  system  which  makes  the 
benefit,  both  of  legislation  and  administration,  fall  to  the 
few  who  rule,  rather  than  to  the  many  who  must  obey. 

Suppose  we  try  the  direct  rule  of  the  majority  of  all — 
suppose  each  law  of  the  law-maker  and  each  act  of  the  law 
executive  was  directly  answerable,  and  without  delay,  to 
the  voice  of  the  majority  of  all. 

Still  the  law-maker  might  try  to  make  laws  to  his 
own  advantage — but  suppose  he  should.  The  maker  has 
become  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  and  the  more  ad- 
vantages the  whole  body  of  the  people  get  for  themselves, 
the  better  for  all — the  king  and  the  ring  ruled  for  them- 
selves— secured  their  own  interests.  Let  the  people  try 
ruling  for  themselves — secure  their  own  interests.  What 
then?  Why,  that  is  what  the  law  is  for.  The  right  will  have 
been  discovered  and  will  be  enforced. 

But  will  not  the  majority  be  tyrants — will  not  special 
rights — vested  interests  which  give  some  of  us  advantages 
over  the  balance  of  us,  be  in  great  danger?  Put  the  ques- 
tion this  way:  The  king  and  the  ring  have  taken  away 
from  the  people  by  the  authority  of  the  law,  which  the 
king  and  the  ring  have  enacted,  certain  things  which  God 
Almighty  gave  to  all  the  people  in  the  first  place.  Now 
under  the  rule  of  the  people  is  there  not  great  danger  that 
they,  too,  under  the  authority  of  the  laws  which  they  will 
create,  that  they,  too,  will  us'e  the  authority  of  their  own 
laws  to  repossess  themselves  of  the  stolen  property  which 
they  find  in  the  possession  of  this  plutocratic  fence  for 
thieves  known  as  vested  interests?  Well,  yes,  there  would 
be  some  danger  of  that,  but  in  consideration  of  certain  ad- 
vantages we  could  endure  even  the  great  wrong  O'f  the 
restoration  to  the  proper  persons  of  the  stolen  goods  oi  the 
centuries  of  misrule. 

Direct  Legislation  means  that  all  laws  shall  be  the 
direct  act  of  all  the  people.  This  has  been  on  trial  among 
the  Swiss  people  in  some  cantons  from  the  beginning  of 
their  history,  and  was  then  in  operation,  and  no  one  knows 
haw  far  back  in  the  untold  story, of  that  free  and  progres- 


DIRECT     LH.iSLATlON. 


203 


sive  people.  It  means  that  a  small  percentage  of  the  peo- 
ple, by  petition,  can  propose  a  law  in  the  same  way  that, 
by  petition,  under  our  election  laws  we  may  now  propose 
a  candidate.  And  it  further  means  that,  by  a  similar  peti- 
tion, any  law  enacted  by  the  city  council  or  State  Legisla- 
tion is  not  law  until  approved  by  the  people. 

It  still  further  involves  the  principle  of  the  imperative 
mandate,  whereby  an  unworthy  public  officer  could  be 
discharged  from  his  place  of  power,  without  waiting  for 
a  general  election  to  do  so. 

Under  this  rule  we  could  vote  for  one  measure  which 
we  want  without  voting  at  the  same  time  for  some  other 
measure  which  we  don't  want. 

We  could  vote  for  a  plan  we  want  without  voting  for 
a  candidate  we  don't  want. 

In  this  wa\  every  law  would  stand  on  its  own  merits, 
and  every  candidate  on  his  own  personal  merits. 

Great  measures  and  good  men  would  no  longer  be 
slaughtered  by  bad  candidates. 

The  rule  of  the  boss  would  cease  forever.  Having  no 
power  to  give  away  franchises  or  sell  public  contracts,  or 
run  an  office  brokerage  bureau,  his  powder,  his  income,  his 
existence  would  all  go  together. 

Corrupt  measures  could  not  be  enacted. 

Special  legislation  would  cease.  Party  platforms 
would  cut  no  figure  and  the  party  convention,  the  mob 
caucus,  the  dishonest  primary  would  all  go  in  company 
with  each  other  and  to  the  same  place. 

When  self  government  has  achieved  this  victory,  all 
other  questions  will  fall  in  line,  and  hasten  to  their  final 
settlement.  We  believe  in  the  rule  of  the  people,  we  insist 
that  it  shall  be  tried  in  this  country,  and  to  its  realization 
we  pledge  our  best  support. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  AND  OF  THE 

STREET. 

Our  life  is  both  universal  and  individual.  All  things 
live  and  move  and  have  one  common  single  being,  and  I 
in  the  midst  of  them  do  also  live.  What  are  the  relations 
of  my  individual  life  to  this  universal  life  of  all.  I  cannot 
tell.  I  cannot  know.  I  do  not  understand  the  secret  of 
my  own  small  life.  How  can  I  understand  the  secrets  of 
the  life  universal.  And  yet  this  life  of  mine  which  I  can- 
not understand  I  may  and  do,  nevertheless,  recognize  and 
cherish  as  above  all  other  gifts  which  are  mine. 

-  May  I,  in  the  same  way,  if  not  so  definitely,  recognize 
and  cherish  another  life  outside  of  and  beyond  my  own? 
If  I  cannot  understand  the  universal  life  of  all,  may  I 
know  as  I  know  myself  another  self  including  this  small 
life  of  mine  in  the  larger  life  of  all?  As  I  may  know  the 
fact  of  my  own  consciousness,  of  my  own  existence,  is 
there  also  a  real  consciousness  by  which  some  way  I  feel 
the  throb  of  a  wider  life,  larger,  stronger,  fuller  than  my 
own,  the  touch  of  whose  presence  makes  me  realize  my 
oneness  with  itself? 

And  if  so,  then,  what  are  my  relations  to  this  universal 
life?  Am  I  its  slave,  or  its  child?  Is  he  a  demon,  or  my 
father?  Is  this  all  life  in  which  is  the  swing  of  a  universe 
my  friend  or  my  enemy,  or  is  it  true  that  he  simply  does 
not  care?  What  are  the  relations  of  my  fellows  to  this  one 
great  life?  Are  they  his  slaves  and  I  his  child?  Does  he 
love  me  and  despise  them?  Can  I  by  any  formi  "or  bargain 
or  ceremony  interest  this  great  universal  life  in  my  be- 
half, so  that  the  strength  of  the  universe  shall  help  me 
and  harm  another,  and  at  my  bidding,  or  in  answer  to  my 
prayer?    Has  this  marvelous  being  made  part  of  His  crea- 

204 


THE     RELIGION     OF    THE    TEMPLE.  205 

tion  to  be  a  garden  and  part  to  be  a  place  of  torment? 
The  one  for  His  flatterers  and  His  favorites,  and  the  other 
for  all  the  earth  besides?  Are  the  natural  laws  which  I 
observe  in  full  force  in  all  the  world  around  me  subject  to 
His  will,  and  may  I  by  strategy  or  prayer  so  capture  Him 
that  by  His  will  I  may  reverse  the  order  of  things  and  be- 
come the  master  of  natural  law? 

And  then  of  what  importance  are  all  these  questions, 
anyway?  What  if  I  do  believe  that  every  man's  hand 
is  against  me,  and  know  that  my  hand  is  against  every 
man?  \\  hat  is  the  difference,  anyway,  if  I  do  believe  that 
I  am  my  Maker's  pet,  and  every  man  made  only  for  my 
convenience — God's  mistake  and  my  victim'  ?  What  has 
religion,  anvway,  got  to  do  with  the  hard  and  heartless 
facts  of  my  daily  life?  That  depends  altogether  on  what  is 
meant  by  religion.  In  my  dictionary  religion  has  to  do 
with  the' relations  of  the  fife  of  one  to  the  life  of  all,  the 
relations  of  the  life  individual  to  the  life  universal.  Re- 
ligion is  not  a  matter  of  myth,  or  miracle,  or  tradition,  or 
form,  or  ceremony.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  natural, 
necessary  inberdependen't  relations  between^  myself  and 
my  fellows,  between  myself  and  the  great  universal  lif:: 
which  is  in  all,  of  all  and  is  all. 

I  have  not  asked  a  single  question  in  all  the  foregoing 
which  does  not  bear  directly  on  these  relations  and  your 
conception  of  what  is  true  in  these  matters — I  mean  the 
truths  you  discover,  or  think  you  discover,  and  take  to 
heart,  as  the  real  and  certain  things  of  the  life  you  live 
will  determine  beyond  all  question  the  kind  of  life  you  will 
live. 

•Religion  is  not  a  matter  of  the  few  in  the  temples,  it 
is  a  matter  of  life,  and  all  men  who  live  have  a  religion  of 
some  sort.  That  is,  there  are  certain  things  which  they 
believe  about  themselves,  about  each  other,  and  about 
their  relations  to  the  great  universal  life,  on  the  bosom 
of  whose  resistless  current  all  things  are  moving  some- 
where. 

The  religious  men  with  their  temples  and  their  books 
do  not  more  surely,  I  do  not  believe  they  do  as  surely, 
believe  their  confessions  and  their  formulas  as  do  the 


206  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

rude,  course  lives,  untrained,  and  uncontrolled,  believe 
certain  fixed  things  which  they  do  take  to  heart,  and  by 
which  they  do  take  heart,  and  by  which  they  do  order 
their  lives  for  good  or  ill. 

He  who  really  believes  that  all  men  are  his  natural  foes 
will,  in  spite  of  himself,  act  accordingly.  He  who  really 
believes  that  he  is  his  Maker's  special  favorite  will  treat 
liis  fellows  with  contempt,  and  in  keeping  with  the  con- 
tem.pt  which  he  has  attributed  to  his  Maker. 

He  who  really  and.sincerely  believes  that  all  men  are 

thieves  is  really  and  seriously  and  beyond  all  question 

(whether  stolen  goods  be  found  with  him  or  not),  he  is  at 

heart  and  is  sure  to  be  somewhere  and  in  some  way,  in  fact, 

a  thief  himself.    Whoever  really  believes  that  every  man 

has  his  price  has  his  own  price,  and  usually  not  a  high  one 

for  himself.    He  who  believes  that  all  things  are  working 

together  to  promote  disaster,  that  goodness  is  not  at  the 

center  of  all  life,  but  at  the  best  indifference  is  the  ruling 

character  of  the  universal  life,  that  man  must  be  made 

of  rare  stuff,  indeed,  or  he,  too,  becomes  indifTferent  to  all 

the  wrong,  and  careless  of  all  the  good.    These  are  truths 

we  cannot  deny,  and  these  things  are  true  in  the  street 

and  the  market  as  surely  as  in  the  temple  and  at  the  altar. 

But  reverse  all  these.    Suppose  I  do  really  believe  that 

all  the  teeming  life  of  earth  and  air,  and  sea  and  sky  has 

one  kindly  purpose  in  it,  that  all  the  trial  and  sorrow  and 

conflict  of  the  sad  story  of  the  years  gone  by — of  the  sad 

story  which  these  passing  days  are  telling  over  again — 

suppose  I  do  really  believe  that  all  these  are  but  steps  to 

higher  things,  and  that  this  conviction  is  so  real  to  me 

that  it  hangs  a  rainbow^  over  every  storm,  puts  a  silver  lin- 

•  ing  on  every  cloud,  sees  victory  further  on  in  the  presence 

of  every  defeat,  can  such  a  faith  in  no  way  affect  the  life 

of  such  a  believer? 

Religion  is  not  a  matter  of  the  temple,  it  is  a  matter  of 
life.  The  temple  did  not  give  us  religion.  Religion,  the 
inspiration  of  a  full  faith  in  the  general  good,  has  builded 
every  temple  which  deserved  to  rise,  and  sooner  or  later 
will  destroy  every  temple  which  deserves  to  fall.  Jesus 
Christ  built  no  temples.     Was  he  therefore  irreligious? 


THE     RELIGION     OF     THE     TEMPLE.  207 

Socrates  and  Paul  and  the  early  missionaries  of  the 
church  of  Rome  taught  in  the  open  streets,  and  embodied 
their  religion  not  in  brick  and  stone  and  iron,  but  in  the 
real  lives  they  lived  themselves,  and  in  the  splendid  exam- 
ples they  inspired  in  others.  Religion  has  to  do  with  real 
life.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  poetry,  or  song,  or  liturgy,  it  is 
not  a  matter  of  forms  or  ceremonies,  it  is  life  in  perfect  re- 
lations to  its  fellows,  and  to  the  great  and  kindly  purpose 
shown  to  us  in  the  great  life  of  nature. 

This  religion  is  the  most  marked  fact  in  all  life,  has 
been  the  creative  factor  in  all  progress.  If  the  new  civ- 
ilization is  ever  to  come,  it  will  come  not  by  the  services 
of  those  who  seek  their  own.  It  will  come  not  by  the  aid 
of  those  who  hold  that  existence  is  an  accident  and  all 
history  but  a  chance.  If  the  new  civilization  is  ever  to 
come  it  will  come  as  the  glad  creation,  not  of  the  temples 
which  the  old  prophets  have  built,  but  as  the  work  of  the 
new  leaders  and  teachers,  whose  faith  in  the  existence  and 
whose  confidence  in  the  resistless  forces  which  work  to- 
gether, i:ot  to  destroy,  but  to  save  and  build,  is  to  them  the 
source  of  their  inspiration  and  the  secret  of  their  power. 

Hungry  men  looking  for  their  own  dinner  will  never 
furnish  a  sufficient  army  to  conquer  the  causes  which  feed 
us  on  crusts  and  clothe  us  in  rags.  Only  a  love  for  the 
others  who  are  ragged  and  cold  and  hungry,  and  a  love 
for  the  good  and  true  as  resistless  as  the  unfailing  forces  of 
great  nature's  life,  joined  to  confidence  that  he  who  works 
for  righteousness,  though  he  walks  through  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  can  never  fail — these  are  the  sources 
from  which  have  come  the  heroes  and  martyrs  of  every 
age. 

The  life  of  the  people,  on  a  more  splendid  basis,  can 
never  come  until  the  new  cause  shall  be  washed  white  in 
the  tears  of  anguish,  and  sanctified  in  the  blood  of  sacri- 
fice of  the  prophets  of  God,  who  forever  come  not  from 
the  temples,  but  up  from  the  dust  of  the  stony  streets. 

^  What  difference  does  it  make?  St.  Paul  and  Closes 
said  from  broken  hearts  that  they  were  ready  themselves 
to  be  accursed  rather  than  that  Israel  should'be  forsaken. 
A  socialist  member  said  in  the  French  Chamber  of  Depu- 


208  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

ties  recently, — ''You  would  do  well  to  listen  to  the  voice 
of  men  who  speak  for  a  cause  which  they  love  better  than 
their  own  lives."  The  new  civilization  is  coming.  It  is 
coming  not  by  the  service  of  those  who  seek  their  own 
welfare.  It  will  come  by  the  service  of  those  who,  like 
the  heroes  of  other  days,  "Count  not  their  own  lives"  in 
the  face  of  the  bitter  wrongs  which  curse  the  race  they 
love, 

1  What  is  hunger  and  cold  and  rags  for  yourself  when 
fighting  in  God's  army,  achieving  eternal  justice  not  in 
hatred  for  those  in  error,  but  filled  with  the  very  love  of 
the  Eternal  for  those  who  suffer,  and  ranking  as  His  com- 
missioned soldiers. 

I  am  saying  these  things  because  I  want  you  to  know 
that  all  the  life  of  the  universe  is  on  our  side,  that  in  this 
conflict  disaster,  defeat,  the  grave  itself  are  only  steps  to- 
ward the  universal  emancipation.  Your  life  and  mine,  if 
hid  with  God,  no  power  can  destroy,  no  enemy  defeat,  no 
disaster  overwhelm.  Our  lives  are  eternal  and  invincible 
in  the  winning  warfare  for  the  good. 


HOW  GOUGE  WENT  TO  HEAVEN. 

Esquire  Gouge  was  a  long,  lean  man — that  is,  his  body 
and  his  soul  were  lean;  his  bank  account,  which  was  the 
real  man,  was  fat  and  comfortable. 

It  was  a  cold  day.  It  was  cold  for  the  collector  who 
went  after  the  reiits  which  were  due  the  good  Squire.  It 
was  cold  for  the  renters  who  didn't  have  the  money; — it 
was  decidedly  cold  for  the  collector  who  returned  without 
it.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  sufifering  from  this  extreme 
cold  on  this  particular  day,  for  many  renters  were  penni- 
less. Many  a  time  tears,  entreaties,  begging  for  work,  and 
in  some  cases  dead  children  were  all  the  collector  could 
get  from  the  defen&eless  people,  who  frankly  admitted 
that  they  were  occupying  a  dilapidated  and  filthy  portion 
of  the  earth,  on  which  the  good  Squire  was  claiming  rent, 
and  on  which  they  had  promised  payment.  It  was  a  cold 
day.  A  terrible  gale  was  coming  straight  from  the  north- 
west,— ^the  air  was  full  of  snow  and  hail  and  the  kind- 
hearted  utterances  of  disappointed  landlords. 

Mr.  Slinkoff,  a  Russian  who  had  never  been  sent  to  Si- 
beria (why  should  he  go  to  Siberia?),  was  the  collector.  He 
had  done  his  best,  or  his  worst,  all  the  day  through.  He 
had  done  every  ugly  thing  his  stupid  genius  could  sug- 
gest to  extort  money  from  the  helpless  renters — that  was 
surely  his  worst.  He  had  succeeded  in  getting  verv-  little 
money  for  the  good  Squire — I  cannot  tell  whether  that 
was  better  or  worse,  for  of  course  poor  people  ought  to 
pay.  No  personal  quality  of  theirs  could  so  favorably 
impress  the  Squire,  and  those  who  write  books  to  sell  to 
him,  and  sermons  to  read  to  him,  as  the  reputation  for 
''good  pay;"  and  what  is  a  renter  to  live  for  anyway, 
if  not  for  a  good  reputation  with  the  landlord  and  his 

309 


210  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

hani^ers-on?  That  is  better  than  health  or  strength,  or 
kindl}-  heart,  or  helpful  hand,  better  than  goodness,  better 
than  personal  virtue  for — for  the  landlord.  And  this  i& 
■evident,  for  the  renter  may  fail  in  all  these  if  he  is  good 
pay,  and  not  fail  of  a  home;  in  fact  that  is  the  case  with 
the  good  Squire  Gouge  himself,  and  with  his  bookmaker 
and  his' — other  friends. 

Do  not  misunderstand  this  as  applying  to  business 
men.  It  does  not.  They  may  discount  their  paper  and 
renew  their  obligations,  and  great  ban^ks  may  organize 
and  ''get  great  gain"  extending  ''accommodations"  to 
them  at  two  per  cent,  a  month.  This  does  not  apply  to 
such  as  have  credit,  but  only  to  the  poor  who  have  not. 
And  herein  lies  the  especial  fault  of  the  poor  who  have 
nothing  but  their  services'  to  sell,  in  that  they  ask  for  and 
do  not  get  "accommodations"  just  as-  others  do  and  get 
them.  Not  being  cunning  enough  to  live  in  this  world 
by  merely  buying  and  selling  the  services  of  others,  or 
the  products  of  the  services  of  others;  they  are  under  the 
necessity  of  bein-g  useful  themselves,  but  the  fact  of  really 
useful  service  is  no  ground  for  credit.  Naked  usefulness' 
must  not  ask  for  favors  which  society  provides  only  for 
luck  and  cunning. 

Now  Slinkofif  had  had  the  very  hard  task  of  dealing 
with  somie  of  the  poor  people  who  are  so  rich  in  nseful- 
nesis  that  they  canTiot  only  feed  and  clothe  their  more 
worthy  neighbors  as  they  do,  but  have  great  intervals^ 
of  timie  in  which  to  starve  and  freeze  themselves.  They 
had  provided  food  and  clothes  and  fuel  and  shelter  for 
their  more  worthy  meighbors,  and  their  wages  had  been' 
enough  to  keep  them)  living  in-  order  to  work,  and  to  pay 
the  rent  while  so  engaged.  But  now  the  "season  had 
come"  and  their  more  worthy  neighbors  were  hiring 
people  to  entertain  them,  and  these  useful  people  were 
not  funny;  they  could  not  sing,  they  could  not  dance — 
some  of  them  even  objected  to  providing  the  indecent  ex- 
posures which  some  of  their  more  worthy  neighbors  en- 
joyed and  were  willing  to  pay  for.  They  could  not  make 
worthless  things;  they  could  not  even  make  faces  that 
would  sell.     They  could  only  be  useful,  but  they  had 


HOW  GOUGE  WENT  TO  HEAVEN.  211 

already  provided  all  the  useful  thimgis  their  more  worthy 
n-eio^hbors  would  buy.  The  "sieason"  had  come— the  sea- 
son when  one-half  of  the  world  goes  to  parties,  and  the 
other  half  goes  hungry  and  cold. 

I  cannot  tell  you  all  the  cruel  words-  that  Slinkoff  had 
spoken  to  the  wretched  people  who  were  subject  to  his 
control,  and  who  tirembled  at  his'  approach;  I  only  know 
that  every  wretched  condition  of  their  wretched  lives  w^as 
made  more  wretched  by  his  weekly  calls;  that  hungry 
})cople  went  supperless  to  bed  becaus-e  they  could  do 
\vithout  a  supper,  but  none  could  endure  a  night  on  the 
sidewalk  with  wif-e  and  little  ones;  that  the  deep  w^ounds 
which   conscious  penury   had  made,  were   cruelly   torn 
ag:ain,  and  made  to  bleed  afresh  in  the  secret  inward 
bleeding  of  the  hearl^  which  both  strangles  nobleness  of 
])urpos'e  and  exhausts  life's  forces.    I  only  know  that  the 
conduct  of  Slinkoff  had  been^  so  despicable  that  his  own 
cruel  words  had  touched  an  unsuspected  tender  spot  in 
his  own  thick  hide,  and  that  he  had  stopped  short  off  in 
his  heartless  work  and  determined  to  go  to  Gouge  with 
a  forbidden  report  of  a  bereaved  and  penniless  family. 
The  father  had  gone  in  search  of  work;  had  gone  out  into 
the  darkness,  under  the  glare  of  the  sunlight,  with  a 
heavy  heart,  and  had  not  returned,  knowing  that  the 
cupboard  was  empty  and  the  fire  gone  out.  He  was  strug- 
gling somewhere,  begging  somebody  to  give  him  toil, 
that  he  might  save  his  little  ones  afive.     His  wife  had 
fallen  in  a  fatal  sickness  because  of  the  hunger  and  cold 
she  could  no  long-er  bear.    The  little  ones  had  bundled  to- 
gether in  their  fright  and  suffering — the  oldest,  a  boy  of 
a  dozen  years,  had  begged  for  money  to  save  his  mother 
from  the  awful  cold,  and  had  been  arrested  for  begging, 
his  story  discredited  and  himself  sent  to  the  lock-up.   The 
father,  in  despair,  had  returned  to  suffer  with  his  little 
ones  empty-handed,  to  find  his  wife  dead,  his  child  in 
prison,  and  Slinkoff  in  possession  of  the  remnants  of  his 
household  effects.* 

Slinkoff  entered  the  dingy  room  which  Gouge  called 

*An  actual  occurrence. 


21:2  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

his  office.     There  was  a  really  pained  expression  on  his 
heartless  face. 

"Did  you  bring  any  money  from  No.  22  in  6?"  said 
Gou^e. 

"I  found  there  a  most  terrible  thing 

"Shut  your  mouth!"  and  silence  followed.  "When 
are  you  going  to  answer  me?"  continued  the  good  man 
who  owned  the  earth  in-  question. 

"I  fovmd "  said  Slinkofif,  "I  found "  he  re- 
peated and  hesitated. 

"You  found — you — you  lazy  lout!  What  are  your 
instructions?"  roared  the  good  Squire,  stung  to  the  last 
measure  of  endurance  by  the  impudence  of  his'  hired  man 
— and  he  living  in  one  of  the  good  man's  hous'es  besides. 
What  would  become  of  the  world  anyway  if  renters  and 
hired  men  were  allowed  to  talk  back  when  you  abuse 
them,  especially  after  they  have  been  properly  instructed? 

The  good  Squire  had  told  Slinkoff  when  he  hired  him 
that  the 'first  account  of  poverty  which  he  brought  to  the 
office  would  instantly  terminate  his  valuable  services.  Said 
Gouge  on  that  occasion,  "You  see,  Mr.  Slinkoff,  I  am  of 
a  peculiarly  tender-hearted  make-up,  and  I  must  never  be 
worried  by  the  tales  of  woe  which  the  occasional  pauper 
may  tell  you — keep  them  to  yourself.    I  do  not  send  you 
on  errands  of  charity,  nor  to  bring  mc  information  con- 
cerning the  diseases  or  misfortunes  of  the  whole  city^ — 
you  are  simply  to  bring  me  money,  and  that  is  all  I  send 
you  after.     Now  mind,"  said  the  Squire  with  great  ear- 
nestness, "the  first  time  you  catch  yourself  bringing  me 
anything  else,  consider  yourself  dismissed,  and  do  not 
wait  for  m&  to  tell  you  so.     I  am  of  a  sensitive  and  nerv- 
ous nature,  and  it  would  greatly  shock  my  sensibilities 
to  be  obliged  to  discharge  you.     So  if  you  cannot  keep 
your  mouth  shut  don't  go  to  work.    If  you  do  go  to  work 
and  ever  speak  one  word  to  me  concerning — concerning 
such  things,  let  your  own  words  dismiss  you:    don't  an- 
noy me  by  further  importunities." 

Now  these  words  were  plain  enough,  and  yet  Mr. 
Slinkoff  had  attempted  in-  the  face  of  these  instructions  to 
say  that  he  had  not  thrown  the  woman  and  her  children; 


HOW    GOUGE     WENT    TO    HEAVEN.  213 

into  tbe  street,  solely  because  the  woman  had  died,  and  to 
explain  the  circumstances  which  would  seem  to  justify 
her  in  doing  so,  and  himself  as  the  agent  of  the  good 
Squire,  in  leaving  the  family  still  in  possession. 

Well,  Gouge  pointed  to  the  door  and  lifted  his  hand 
to  the  police  alarm.  Slinkoff  knew  its  meaning,  and  has- 
tened to  his  narrow  quarters  to  remove  the  ragged  rem- 
nants of  what  was  once  a  home,  before  his  successor  ;n 
office  could  take  possession  of  them  under  pretense  of 
the  non-payment  of  rents.  For  he  knew  the  punishment 
he  deserved  would  quickly  follow^ 

That  was  a  stern  rule  which  discharged  a  faithful  ser- 
vant without  a  hearing.  But  then  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  business  regulations  are  necessary;  that  no 
large  enterprise  can  be  conducted  without  proper  regu- 
lations, and  that  if  these  regulations  sometimes  occasion 
hardships,  nevertheless  in  the  long  run  they  are  both 
necessary  and  beneficent. 

But  Slinkofif  was  gone,  and  Esquire  Gouge  was  alone 
nursing  his  wrongs,  wath  deep  pity  for  his  own  misfortunes. 
The  gas  was  burning  with  an  unsteady  light.  Suddenly 
the  old  building  seemed  to  lurch  and  stagger  as  if  the  ter- 
rific wind  were  holding  it  outright  in  its  arms,  while  it 
shrieked  and  howled  and  rattled  in  its  dilapidated  walls 
as  if  a  thousand  demons  w-ere  laughing  at  its  poverty  and 
rejoicing  at  its  fall.  The  old  building  tottered,  creaked, 
shrieked,  struggled,  and  as  the  tempest  passed,  still  stood 
clinging  to  its  old  foundation.  But  the  dimly  burning  gas 
had  ceased  its  burning,  and  the  good  Squire,  first  fright- 
ened, and  then  annoyed  more  than  frightened,  because 
the  storm  had  frightened  him,  let  the  matter  pass  unno- 
ticed. In  the  morning  he  was  cold  and  dead — his  life  had 
gone  out  without  warning,  in  the  midst  of  the  alternating 
murmur  and  blast  of  the  awful  storm.  Above  the  de- 
serted body  stood  the  spirit  life  for  a  little,  sadly  musing 
on  the  ruin  it  had  left,  and  then  went  its  way  out  into  the 

boundless  universe. 

♦     *     * 

A  weak  and  frightened  old  man  appeared  alone  at 
the  ruins  of  an  old  wall,  and  at  the  remnants  of  an  an- 


214 


EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 


cient  tower  and  gate.  He  entered  and  walked  along  the 
ruins  of  what  had  been  the  most  magnificent  street^man's 
eye  had  ever  seen — the  most  glorious  whence  man's  rap- 
tured ear  had  heard  arise  the  ringing  footfall  on  the 
golden  way,  where  a  city  without  a  hovel,  or  a  slum  or  a 
place  of  evil  resort  within  its  borders,  had  once^  stood 
with  its  matchless  mansions,  its  ceaseless  music,  its 
sparkling  waters  and  its  unfading  foliage.  But  now  all 
was  in  ruin.  The  ancient  paving  had  been  removed.  The 
jeweled  gates  had  been  unhinged,  the  jaspered  walls  were 
broken  and  overgrown.  The  lean  old  man  was  Gouge. 
The  city  in  ruins  was  none  other  than  the  New  Jerusalem. 
He  stopped  before  a  little  shanty  built  from  the  scattered 
ruins,  before  which  swung  a  creaking  sign  marked: 

''St.  Peter's  Office,  Real  Estate  and  Loans,  Furnished 
Rooms." 

Gouge  entered  through  the  open  door  and  fixed  his 
startled  eyes  on  Mr.  Slinkof¥,  who  stood  before  him.  The 
meeting,  although  in  heaven,  was  not  a  joyful  one. 

"Where — where  is  my  place?"  said  Gouge. 

''Your  name?"  said  Slinkofif,  "and  I  will  consult  the 
books.  I  do  not  think  you  bought  of  us,  however.  Have 
you  lost  your  way?" 

"Bought  of  you,"  said  Gouge,  "no,  I  have  not  bought 
at  all.  But  I  did  surely  lose  my  way.  I  have  been  a  home- 
less tramp  abroad  in  the  universe  without  where  to  lay  my 
head  for  a  thousand  years.  But  they  did  tell  me  this  was 
heaven,  and  I  have  come  to  rest,  for  I  am  weary.  Show 
me  my  place  of  rest." 

"Yes,"  said  Slinkofif — "did  you  wish  to  rent  or  buy?" 

"How  can  I  buy,"  said  Gouge,  "for  I  am  penniless?" 

"Then  give  me  your  references,  and  where  are  you 
employed?" 

'T  know  of  no  one  who  knows  me  here,  and  I  am  not 
employed  at  all." 

"Then  you  are  looking  for  work,"  said  Slinkofif,  with 
*n  evil  grin  upon  his  ugly  face,  "what  can  you  do,  and 
where  were  you  'employed  last?" 

"In  a  real  estate  ofifioe,"  the  old  man'  sadly  said,  "I 
think  I  could  help  you  with  your  rents.'* 


HOW  GOUGE  WENT  TG  HEAVEN.         215 

"No,  no,"  said  Slinkoff,  "you  would  never  do,  you 
are  too- nervous  and  too  tender-hearted, — and  then  there 
is  no  use  in  looking  for  soft  snaps,  they  are  all  taken.  You 
must  do  solid,  honest,  useful  work.     What  can  you  do?" 

"Alas,"  said  Gouge,  "I  never  did  a  us-eful  thing  in  all 
my  life,  and  I  am  old  and  weak  and  weary,  I  must  rest." 

"The  same  old  story,"  said  the  agent,  "all  the  world 
has  been  pauperized  when  it  comtes  to  heaven.  Mutual 
dependence  and  a  kindly  fraternalism  which  they  sneer  at 
in  the  other  world,  they  ask  for  in  this  without  a  blush. 
So  it  is  'free  soup'  and  a  pauper's  bed  you  ask,  is  it?  Well, 
this  is  no  charity  of¥ice.  We  only  do  busin-ess  here.  Move 
on!" 

"Where?"  said  Gouge. 

"Move  on,"  said  Slinkoff.  "You  know  my  meaning," 
as  he  reached  to  the  police  alarm. 

"Stop  a  moment,"  said  a  kinder  voice  than  Gouge  had 
ever  heard.  "Does  the  man  complain?  It  must  be  that 
he  does  not  understand." 

Gouge  turned  his  face  and  saw  an  old  man,  yet  as  full 
of  strength  and  grace  as  of  the  years.  His  full  and  snow- 
white  beard,  his  robes  of  pure  light,  his  stately,  kindly 
step  and  his  matchless  voice  commanded  and  entranced 
the  wanderer. 

Jt  was  St.  Peter.  "Come  with  me,"  he  continued, 
"and  rest  a  little.  I  will  first  answer  all  the  questions 
rising  to  your  lips,  and  will  then  guide  you  on  your  jour- 
ney." 

St.  Peter  led  the  way  through  streets  deserted  and 
overgrown,  and  past  palaces  broken  and  in  ruins,  to  ani 
open  space  where  St.  Peter  said,  "Here  still  remains  a 
glimpse  of  heaven  as  it  was."  The  overhanging  trees- 
were  everywhere.  The  flowers  were  growing  with  an 
exhaustless  wealth  of  fragrance.  The  birds  with  music 
ill  their  movements  as  well  as  voices  filled  the  air.  The 
riv^^er  beside  which  they  were  seated  was  clear  and  spark- 
ling, and  its  waters  broke  along  the  shore  with  a  strange 
peculiar  music,  which  charmed  away  all  anxiety  and  put 
all  weariness  to  rest.    On  either  side  there  were  long  lines* 


2l6  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

of  palaces  in  their  perfect  beauty  and  children  were  play- 
ing- in  the  streets. 

"It  is  not  surprising,"  said  Peter,  ''that  you  are  dis- 
appointed— that  even  heaven  itself  should  be  in  ruins.  It 
was  not  so  when  the  Master  told  us  of  it  so  long  ago.  I 
must  tell  you  all  about  it.  In  the  first  place  it  is  not  so 
S'tramge,  after  all.  All  the  universe  of  God  is  sacred 
ground.  You  have  grown  accustomed  to  ruined  palaces, 
overgrown  gardens,  fallen  temples  and  unwholesome 
tenements  in  the  other  world.  But  the  other  world  is 
the  Lord's  as  well  as  this.  If  you  can  answer  why  they 
are  there,  that  will  help  to  understand  why  they  are  here. 
You  must  remember  that  in  the  other  world  both  the 
palaces  and  the  ruins  of  palaces  were  the  works  of  men, — 
you  must  be  familiar  with  the  doctrine,  that  no  outward 
comfort  of  one  person  can  ever  justify  an'  interference 
with  his  personal  rights  and  his  personal  tastes^and  wishes 
by  another.  While  that  was  certainly  true  in  the  world 
you  came  from,  it  is  equally  true  here.  From  the  cradle 
of  the  human  race  in  Asia  its  Westward  path  is  marked 
by  a  line  of  ruins.  The  civilization  of  the  Euphrates,  the 
Nile,  the  Holy  Land,  of  Greece,  of  Rome,  have  only 
ashes  to  show  for  their  ancient  greatness.  In  Europe 
the  ruins  of  one  day  are  covered  by  the  growing  life  of 
the  next.  But  in  the  midst  of  all  its  greatness,  like  the 
greatness  of  Herod  of  old,  its  heart  is  unclean  and  its 
body  is  covered  with  sores.  The  good  Master  kept  back 
from  the  life  of  the  world  the  Western  Continent  for  many 
centuries.  He  set  the  world  to  praying  Thy  Kingdom 
come,  and  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in«  Heaven^' 
And  then  He  gave  them  the  new  Continent  in  which  to 
answer  their  own  prayers.  He  offered  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  as  containing  the  principles  underlying  just 
society.  But  the  New  World  idealized  the  Christ,  gave 
him  the  first  place  in  literature,  music,  painting,  and 
S'culpture,  and  the  last  place  in  the  every  day  burdens 
of  the  children  of  men.  They  enthroned  Christ  in  the 
forni'S  of  the  church,  but  they  enthroned  in  the  shop  and 
in  the  market  Adam  Smith  and  the  rest  of  the  economists, 
who  have  no  place  for  any  portion  of  the  Sermon  on  the 


How  GOUGE  WENT  TO  HEAVEN.         217 

Mount  in  their  theories  of  wealth.  They  maintained  with 
vigor  for  many  years  the  one  day  of  rest,  but  they  Hved 
with  equal  vigor  oni  the  six  remainin'g  days  of  all  the 
weeks  of  all  the  years  of  the  centuries-,  an  industrial  and 
conmiercial  life,  the  central  principle  of  which  was  the 
same  old  self-seeking  which  caused  the  angel's  fall  in 
the  ancient  days,  and  which  built  both  the  palaces  and 
the  ruins  of  the  palaces  of  every  civilization  which  had 
gone  before.  They  devised  new  forms  of  government, 
but  it  mattered  little  whether  a  prince  or  a  president  ad- 
ministered the  affairs  of  a  people  so  fully  devoted  to  prey- 
ing upon  one  another.  They  contrived  all  manner  of  in^ 
ventions  and  cunning  devices  by  which  the  power  of  man 
was  multiplied.  But  they  could  not  greatly  bless  the 
world  by  a  simple  increase  of  power  when  that  very- 
power  was  used  in  the  struggle  with  each  other:  for  a 
single  prophet,  foot-sore  and  weary,  if  need  be,  bearing 
his  staff,  was  a  greater  force  to  bless  the  world  than  a 
whole  train  load  of  trained  and  crafty  men,  controlling 
all  the  devices  of  the  most  modern  industry,  and  riding 
at  forty  miles  an  hour,  each  seeking  his  own.  They 
prayed,  'Thy  kingdom  come,'  but  they  did  not  believe 
that  the  m-eek  shalk  inherit  both  heaven  and  earth,  and 
they  were  determined  to  possess  the  earth  at  all  cost. 

"They  cani'e  from  Europe  to  America,  and  in  two  cen- 
turies reproduced  Dives  and  Lazarus.  Only  Dives  was 
usually  a  stock  or  bond  holder  absent  and  unknown  to 
Lazarus,  for  he  never  saw  his  outer  gate  or  knew  the 
companionship  even  of  his  dogs.  Som<e  of  them  came 
from  America  to  Heaven  with  th-e  same  old  spirit  in 
them.  They  commenced  in  America  with  a  free  conti- 
nent, and  what  the}'  built  you  know\  They  commenced 
in  Heaven  with  gardens  and  palaces,  and  what  the  old 
spirit  which  covered  the  earth  with  ruins  has  wrought  in 
Heaven  you  can  plainly  see. 

"They  prayed  on  earth  *Thy  kingdom  come,'  but  in 
their  heart  of  hearts  they  struggle  to  possess  the  kingdom 
each  for  himself.  How  could  they  unlearn  all  the  old 
lesson  of  selfishness  by  simply  changing  continents?  A 
European  in  America,  guided  by  the  old  spirit,  was  a 


31 8  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

European  still.  An  American  in  Heaven,  gtiided  by  the 
same  old  spirit,  was  an  American  still.  Well,  Heaven  is 
not  a  prison.  It  was  built  for  a  hom'c,  but  so  absorbed 
were  the  average  Americans  who  came  to  us  with  the 
sole  idea  of  gain  by  trade,  that  a  city  without  a  board  of 
trade,  a  real  estate  exchange,  a  bank,  a  courthouse,  bonds', 
mortgages,  contracts,  jails,  was  to  them  no  home.  To 
them  the  prayer  our  Master  taught  us  was  made  to  read, 
"Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  in  Heaven  as  it  is 
ill  earth,'  and  the  prayer  was  granted.  For  a  New  Jeru- 
salem in  the  Heavens  is  possible  only  for  those  who  try 
to  build  a  New  Jerusalem  on  the  earth.  For  each  of 
us  the  New  Jerusalem  must  be  let  down  out  of  the  Heav- 
ens before  it  can  be  realized  by  us  even  in  the  Heavens. 

"It  seems  to  you  a  hardship  that  you  should  be  re- 
quired to  pay  your  lodging  in  advance.  Was  not  that 
your  own  old  rule?  But  you  came  into  this  world  penni- 
less; so  did  your  brothers  come'  into  the  world  below. 
But  you  came  here  weak  and  worn  and  weary;  they  came 
to  you  in  utter  helplessness.  You  sought  a  city  for  your- 
self, pure,  bright  and  free,  and  full  of  rest;  but  you  built 
for  others,  dark,  dingy,  unsanitary,  cheerless  quarters,  and 
left  the  helpless  there  to  starve  and  die,  while  you  sent  an 
agent  as  helpless  as  your  tenants  to  worry  and  annoy,  and 
rob  them  of  their  daily  bread.  To  fill  a  New  Jerusalem 
with  men  like  you,  possessed  by  your  old  spirit,  justified 
in  your  own  thought,  and  willing  as  you  yourself  sug- 
gested to  be  a  collector  even  in  heaven,  would  be  simply 
to  make  the  New  Jerusalem  an  old  Chicago.  This  is 
what  has  happened.  We  must  desire  the  New  Jerusalem 
with  all  our  hearts,  we  must  build  it  with  all  our  might 
before  we  shall  ever  see  it  as  it  is." 

A  great  crash  startled  the  charmed  listener  as  he  sat. 
There  was  the  noise  of  many  waters  about  his  ears,  a  curi- 
ous struggle  as  of  a  drowning  man.  Gouge  shook  him- 
self and  awoke.  He  was  not  in  the  New  Jerusalem,  he 
had  not  died.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  his  possessions.  A 
block  of  old  wooden  buildings,  rickety,  ding}^  and  dilapi- 
dated, unpainted,  neglected,  fallen  in  ruins,  filled  v^ith 
poverty,  saturated  with  sewage,  poisoned  with  escaping- 


HOW     GOUGE     WExNT     TO     HEAVEN.  219 

.erases,  and  in  every  way  itmvbolesome  and  loathsome  to 
the  last  degree.  He  v.as  standing  in  the  midst  of  the 
weary,  haggard,  toil-worn  and  forsaken.  This  was  his 
heaven,  the  heaven  which  he  had  made,  and  these  were 
liis  angels.  But  there  trembled  on  his  lips  a  n-ew  prayer, 
and  there  entered  into  his  life  a  n-ew  purpose.  He  had 
been  to  Heaven  and  brought  it  back  with  him. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  POOR. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  discussion  we  mean  by  the 
poor  those  who  belong  to  any  of  the  following  classes : 

1st.  Those  who  are  poor  because  they  are  helpless; 
the  deformed,  the  maimed,  the  bHnd,  the  sick,  who  are 
without  relatives  or  friends  who  assume  their  care  and 
bear  their  burdens  for  them, — and  hence,  by  virtue  of 
their  helplessness  they  become  a  public  charge, — the  help- 
less po'or. 

2d.  Those  who  for  any  reason, — it  may  be  sickness, 
accident,  or  other  misfortune — and  they  may  have  been 
born  tired  and  never  got  rested,  they  may  have  been 
thriftless  or  careless,  they  may  have  been  pushed  to  the 
wall  in  competition,  or  become  utterly  discouraged  in  the 
contest  for  bread, — those  who  for  any  reason  are  with- 
out the  means  of  self  support  and  are  indifferent  to  their 
condition, — the  discouraged  poor. 

3d.  Those  who  for  similar  reasons  are  without  the 
means  of  self-support,  but  whose  courage  is  not  broken, 
and  who,  notwithstanding  their  misfortunes  still  seek  an 
opportunity  to  toil,  and  hope  for  at  least  a  share  of  the 
returns  of  their  labor, — the  poor  who  are  not  discouraged. 

4th.  Those  who  are  not  penniless,  but  are  without 
means  suf^cient  to  capitalize  their  own  industry  or  pro- 
vide for  their  own  independent  maintenance;  and  hence,  if 
not  a  public  charge,  are  unduly  dependent  for  their  liveli- 
hood upon  the  consideration  of  others, — the  poor  who'  are 
not  penniless. 

There  are  few  of  us  who  belong  to  the  first  class. 
There  are  comparatively  few  of  us  who  belong  to  the 
second  class.  There  is  a  larger  number  who  belong  to 
the  third,  and  almost  the  whole  American  people  belomg 
to  the  fourth. 

8@Q 


THE     PROBLEM     OF     THE     POOR.  221 

There  will  be  no  dispute  as  to  the  poverty  of  the  first 
three  classes.  There  ought  to  be  no  dispute  as  to  the 
poverty  of  the  last;  that  is,  the  poor  who  are  not  entirely 
penniless,  but  if  the  great  majority  of  the  American  people 
are  poor,  the  poor  problem  becomes  a  matter  of  more 
serious  consideration  than  has  been  usually  supposed. 
For  the  question,  "What  shall  we  do  with  our  poor?"  be- 
comes for  the  most  of  us,  "What  shall  we  do  with  our- 
selves?" 

It  is  true,  that  we  are  all  of  us  dependent  upon  others. 
It  is  also  true  that  these  same  others  are  dependent  upon 
us.  So  long  as  the  dependence  in  question  is  one  of 
mutual  interdependence  between  equals,  neither  party  in 
such  a  relation  need  be  poor,  for  such  an  interdependence 
is  the  natural  law  of  our  life.  It  is  only  when  B,  and  the 
rest  of  the  alphabet,  are  so  dependent  upon  A  that  A  can 
dictate  the  terms  of  their  mutual  relations,  while  B  (and  the 
rest  of  the  alphabet)  can  do  little  more  than  submit,  that 
the  condition  of  the  majority  is  clearly  one  of  poverty, 
whether  they  are  penniless  or  not ;  for  who  can  be  poor  if 
he  is  not  who  is  deprived  even  of  the  possession  of  him- 
self? He  is  placed  in  a  position  where  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  maintain  his  precarious  and  imperfect  bodily  ex- 
istence only  b)  the  surrender  of  his  own  free  choice  and  nis 
own  best  judgment  to  the  dominance  of  another. 

If  a  person  is  entirely  without  money  and  without 
property  he  is  certainly  poor;  but  if  he  is  in  possession  of 
three  or  four  hundred  dollars  in  money,  so  far  as  being 
able  to  provide  for  his  own  living  on  a  permanent  and  in- 
dependent basis  he  might  about  as  well  be  penniless. 
Three  or  four  hundred  dollars  is  not  enough  to  equip  a 
single  worker  standing  by  himself  for  the  independent 
maintenance  of  himself  and  family.  No  matter  how  in- 
dustrious he  may  be,  no  matter  how  skillful  a  workman,  no 
matter  how  anxious  to  toil,  with  three  or  four  hundred 
dollars  he  will  be  able  to  earn  a  living  only  by  working 
for  somebody  else  on  conditions  which  that  somebody  else 
shall  name,  n'nd  to  which  he  shall  have  practically  no  other 
alternative  than  to  submit. 

Of  these  classes  of  poor  people,  the  first,  the  helpless 


222  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

poor,  are  entitled  to  care.  They  are  unable  to  provide  for 
themselves,  they  must  be  provided  for  by  others.  Their 
dependence  is  not  a  result  of  any  vvron^  of  theirs,  it  is 
simply  the  result  of  their  misfortune.  Their  poverty  is  not 
their  disgrace, — their  neglect  and  suffering  is  everywhere 
the  disgrace  of  the  able-bodied  who  permit  it.  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  conceive  of  any  wrong  greater  than  to  treat  the 
utterly  helpless  as  if  in  some  way  they  were  to  be  blamed 
and  punished  for  their  helplessness.  To  house  them  with 
the  vicious  and  the  ignorant  and  the  mentally  defective, — 
to  make  no  distinction  between  the  lazy  and  the  crippled, 
between  the  drunken  and  the  maimed, — between  those 
w^ho  are  poor  because  they  are  vicious  and  those  who 
are  poor  because  they  are  helpless,  is  an  outrage  which  is 
all  the  m'ore  an  outrage  because  committed  against  those 
who  are  defenseless  because  they  are  helpless.  For  these 
it  is  clearly  the  duty  of  the  state  to  provide  homes  com- 
fortable and  convenient,  and  so  far  as  possible  to  retrieve 
for  them  the  great  misfortune  of  their  helplessness,  and 
that  absolutely  without  disgrace. 

Prof.  Graham  Taylor  declares  that  the  cause  of  help- 
less pauperism,  which  is  more  prolific  than  all  others,  is 
sickness  and  death.  The  bread  winner  dies,  and  the  de- 
pendent family  is  left  to  suffer.  Or,  the  bread  v/inner, 
through  accident  or  disease,  becomes  a  confirmed  invalid, 
himself  dependent,  and  those  who  are  helpless  without 
him  must  share  his  dependence.  Sickness  and  even  death 
may  follow  dissipation,  or  a  carelessness  so  great  that  it 
amoun-tsto  crime; but  the  dead  bread  winner  is  b'?yond  our 
reach,  and  the  blame,  which  may  or-  may  not  belong  to  him 
because  of  his  wasted  life,  ought  not  to  be  carried  over  to 
the  account  of  the  young  or  old  who  are  helpless  without 
him.  There  is  no  tragedy  in  life  more  terrible  than  the 
one  which  is  daily  enacted  in  all  portions  of  the  country, 
where  the  family  that  was  able  to  provide  for  itself  while 
the  bread  winner  was  strong,  in  his  broken  strength,  or 
in  the  loss  of  life  itself,  adds  to  its  bereavement  of  a 
broken  family  a  blighted  and  ruined  fireside.  And  there 
is  no  grief  that  can  wring  a  human  heart  with  greater 
anguish  than  the  terrible    knowledge    that    one's  own 


THE     PROBLEM     OF     THE     POOR. 


223 


Strength  is  failing,  and  that  the  helpless  aged  who  have 
loved  us,  or  the  little  prattlers  that  we  love,  are  to  be  left 
uncared  for  with  all  the  chances  of  the  friendless  and  help- 
less in   their  unnatural   struggle    for    existence.      Shall 
society  longer  add  to  the  misfortune  of  their  helplessness 
the  infamy  of  unmerited  disgrace?    In  childhood,  and  old 
age,  all  are  helpless.     If  the  natural  bread  winner  which 
a  family  provides,  fails  through  sickness  or  death,  or  even 
through  his  refusal  to  meet  the  obligations  which  the 
filial  or  parental  relations  create,  then  dependence  on  the 
stranger  is  inevitable.    Xo  goodness  of  heart,  no  kindli- 
ness of  purpose,  no  element  of  personal  virtue,  neither  the 
innocent  prattle  of  childhood  nor  the  ripened  and  un- 
stained virtue  of  the  aged,— beautiful  as  these  are,  enrich- 
ing the  character  and  the  life  of  the  world  as  thev  must,— 
these  are  not  riches  which  can  be  turned  into  bread.    The 
infirmity  and  helplessness  of  the  honest  and  virtuous  aged 
cannot  be  separated  from  the  years  which  crown  their  lives 
'With  hoary  hairs,  and  these  crowns  of  the  useful  years 
ought  not  to  be  made  the  occasion  for  their  disgrace. 
Clearer  still  is  the  claim  of  the  helpless  child.     Helpless 
childhood  cannot  be  blamed  for  its  helplessness,  it  did  not 
ask  for  Its  tiny  life,  it  cannot  care  for  itself,  it  cannot  find 
the  path  its  unused  feet  should  follow.    Its  utter  ignorance, 
weakness  and  innocence  is  a  stronger  claim  for  the  kind- 
liest care  than  any  other  that  any  voice  that  ever  falls  on 
human  ears  can  utter. 

\\  ho  can  blame  a  man  for  being  maimed  or  halt  or 
blind?  His  misfortune  may  have  resulted  from  his  care- 
lessness, but  is  not  his  misfortune  a  sufficient  punishment 
for  his  fault?  Who  can  blame  a  man  for  being  crippled 
and  deformed,  when  his  deformitv  was  given  with  the 
gift  of  his  life  itself?  It  is  a  portion  of  his  birthright  which 
he  cannot  sell.  His  natural  endowments  are  less  than 
ours;  shall  we  use  our  greater  gifts  to  disgrace  him  in  his 
misfortune? 

It  would  seem  that  the  asking  of  these  questions 
would  be  a  sufficient  answer,  that  no  healthy,  honest- 
minded  man  could  ever  propose  that  the  helpless  poor 
should  be  treated  as  if  the  very  relief  oflered  them  in  their 


22-^  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

poverty  should  be  administered  as  if  a  punishment  for 
some  fauh  not  at  all  their  own.  But  is  it  true  that  the 
poor  are  cared  for  as  if  the  very  care  was  taking  care  to 
make  them  miserable?  How  through  the  years  a  man  and 
w^oman  toil — not  so  much  that  they  may  have  houses  and 
lands,  that  they  may  have  bank  accounts,  that  they  may 
command  services  of  others, — not  so  much  for  any  other 
reason  as  that  they  may  live  together,  sharing  each  others' 
griefs  and  creating  each  other's  joys.  All  that  a  man  hath 
will  he  give  for  his  life,  but  dearer  than  his  life  itself  is  the 
companionship  of  those  he  loves.  Through  the  years  an 
aged  couple  have  toiled  together.  At  every  place  where 
hope,  or  fear,  or  joy,  or  sorrow  could  touch  their  lives, 
their  lives  are  one.  They  are  weak,  and  old,  and  helpless. 
All  that  is  left  to  them  out  of  the  s-ervice  of  the  years  is 
each  other,  and  the  County  Poor  House  gives  them  a 
crust  and  robs  them  of  each  other.  What  is  the  striped 
clothes  of  a  prisoner,,  what  is  the  lonely  cell  of  solitary 
confinement,  what  is  the  task  of  the  enforced  laborer, 
•what  were  execution  itself  to  a  criminal,  coarse  and 
brutalized,  in  comparison  with  the  separation  of  the 
kindly  hearted  and  helpless  aged  as  enforced  in  the  ordin- 
ary County  Poor  House? 

What  can  be  more  loathsome  to  a  woman  who  has 
sought  to  keep  herself,  than  enforced  companionship 
with  the  coarse  and  vulgar  whose  misfortunes  are  the 
necessary  fruitage  of  their  vices?  Intemperance  and  a 
disregard  for  the  seventh  commandment,  either  in  this 
generation  or  the  ones  that  have  gone  before  us,  after  sick- 
ness and  death,  are  mor-e  fruitful  of  helpless  poverty  than 
all  other  causes  combined.  Bait  with  the  county's'  poor, 
the  woman*  whose  sole  shame  is  her  misfortuime,  and  the 
w^oman  whose  sole  misfortune  is  her  shame,  sit  down- 
together. 

Again,  the  County  Poor  House  provides  for  the  in- 
nocent child,  which  is  its  charge,  the  companionship  of 
the  coarsest  and  vilest  products  of  revelry  and  dissipation. 
Thus  we  mingle  the  current  of  new  life,  pure  and  inno- 
cent, which  God  ever  sends  from  the  mysterious  and 
unknown  sources  of    our  being,    with  the  cup  of    life, 


THE     PROBLEM     OF    THE     POOR.  225 

weakened  by  every  vice  and  embittered  by  every  wrong, 
and  we  wonder  that  the  new  hfe  grows  bitter,  too.  The 
pubHc  conscience  must  interfere  with  this  pubHc  wrong. 
The  disgrac  j,  the  enforced  evil  companionship,  the  need- 
less separation  of  old  couples,  and  the  -neglect  of  child- 
hood, which  characterize  the  care  of  the  helpless  poor, 
must  cease,  or  those  of  us  who  know  the  wrong  and  let  it 
pass  are  not  the  followers  of  the  truest  friend  the  friend- 
less ever  knew. 

Pauperism  is  frequently  a  crime,  and  when  it  is  it 
should  be  punished  as  such.  But  the  dependence  which 
is  blameless  is  as  far  from  the  pauperism  which  is  crim- 
inal as  the  prattling  innocence  of  your  helpless  child  is 
from  the  revelry  of  the  coarsest  dissipation.  And  the 
treatment  which  society  provides  for  its  helpless  and  for 
its  dissipated  should  be  as  far  from  each  other  as  is  the 
character  of  the  subjects  which  it  treats. 

And  now  as  to  those  who  are  able-bodied,  but  poor  and 
discouraged,  and  also  as  to  those  who  are  able-bodied, 
poor  and  not  discouraged.  There  are  two  classes  of  able- 
bodied  poor;  those  who  are  poor  and  don't  care,  and  those 
who  are  poor  but  have  been  making,  and  are  making, 
every  possible  effort  to  provide  their  own  support; — just 
as  there  are  two  classes  of  tramps,  those  who  tramp  be- 
cause they  prefer  it,  and  those  who  tramp  because  they 
can't  help  it.  Any  plan  of  treatment  for  the^e  classes 
must  include  tlie  element  of  discipline  in  the  one  case,  and 
ought  to  exclude  it  in  the  other.  If  a  man  has  done  his 
best  to  provide  his  own  support  and  for  any  reason  has 
been  unable  to  do  so,  there  can  be  no  reason  for  treating 
him  in  the  same  manner  as  one  must  be  treated  who  has 
not  provided  his  own  support,  but  has  made  every  effort 
not  to  do  so.  There  are  some  principles,  however,  which 
ought  to  be  observed  alike  in  the  treatment  of  both  classes. 

They  ought  not  to  be  given  anything.  There  is  no 
possession  which  any  man  can  have  which  is  more  im- 
portant to  his  personal  welfare  than  his  self-respect.  To 
be  placed  in  a  position  where  he  must  become  the  subject 
of  another's  charity  is  to  humiliate  him,  disgrace  him,  and 
rob  him  of  his  self-respect    in  return  for    bread.     Xo 


226  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

worthy  able-bodied  man  would  willingly  ask  for  charity, 
and  those  who  find  the  asking  easy  ought  not  to  have  it. 
There  is  no  point  where  suffering  becomes  more  intense 
than  for  a  man  of  exalted  purpose  and  a  keen  sense  of 
personal  honor  to  be  compelled  to  ask  the  gifts  of  others. 
There  is  no  spirit  more  despicable  than  that  of  ready, 
habitual,  unblushing,  able-bodied  beggary;  and  those 
who  are  able  to  work  and  are  willing  to  do  so  ought  not 
to  be  compelled, — and  those  who  are  able  to  work  but 
unvv'illing  to  do  so,  ought  not  to  be  permitted, — to  bear 
the  part  of  beggars. 

They  should  be  provided  work.  It  is  claimed  by 
Edward  Atkinson  that  the  products  of  the  labor  of  seven 
men  properly  equipped  with  the  modern  devices  of  pro- 
duction are  sufificient  to  feed  a  thousand.  What  is  true  with 
regard  to  feeding  men  is  equally  true  with  regard  to 
clothing  and  warming  them.  To  house  and  feed  a  large 
number  of  men,  purchasing  supplies  in  markets  for  that 
purpose,  both  wrongs  the  victim  of  such  charity,  and  bur- 
dens the  tax  payer.  But  to  organize  and  equip  the  able- 
bodied  poor  for  producing  directly  by  their  own  labor 
everything  needed  for  their  own  support  would  cost  but 
little  more  as  a  single  investment  than  is  yearly  expended 
in  temporary  relief.  As  a  matter  of  economy  for  the  tax 
payer  it  is  important  that  those  who  are  unable  or  un- 
willing by  their  own  industry  to  provide  for  their  own  sup- 
port should  be  organized  and  equipped  and  subject  to 
public  management  in  order  that  by  their  labor  they  may 
be  enabled  to  support  themselves,  instead  of  having  them 
supported  by  the  labor  of  others. 

It  is  not  at  all  a  now  suggestion  that  the  penniless 
should  have  work  rather  than  bread,  but  in  carrying  out 
this  suggestion  in  the  efifort  to  find  labor,  it  is  frequently 
provided  in  such  a  manner  as  to  add  to,  rather  than  relieve, 
the  disgrace  of  public  charity.  In  other  words,  the  motive 
has  not  been  so  much  to  save  the  laborer  from  disgrace 
as  to  save  the  giver  from  imposition.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that  all  the  hardships  of  sleeping  out  of  doors,  of 
living  on  crusts,  of  tramping  through  all  sorts  of  weather, 
are  not  enough  to  deter  some  men  from  preferring  to  get 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  POOR. 


227 


a  living  in  that  way  to  getting  it  by  any  honorable  em- 
ployment. And  so  a  pile  of  stone  is  provided  in  a  back 
yard,  that  whoever  "asks  for  bread  will  be  given  a  stone" 
to  carry  from  one  place  to  another— not  because  the 
stones  need  lo  be  moved,  but  because  labor  must  be  pro- 
vided,—not  to  save  the  applicant  from  disgrace,  but  to 
save  the  giver  from  imposition. 

The  factories  shut  down  in  a  great  city  and  multitudes 
of  men  are  thro-wn  out  of  employment.     Quick,  certain 
public  relief  is  necessary;  but  the  tramp  comes  also,  and 
so  every  applicant  must  be  given  something  to  do,— not 
again  to  save  every  applicant  from  disgrace,  but  to  pro- 
tect the  public  from  imposition.    And  so  men  of  all  sorts 
of  all  callings,  of  all  kinds  of  habits,  of  all  grades  of  char- 
acter, are  offered  soup  in  a  public  kitchen,  provided  they 
will  sweep  on  a  public  street,  not  because  the  sweeping 
needs  to  be  done,  not  because  the  labor  is  intelligentlv 
directed  to  the  end  that  the  city  may  be  clean,  not  that 
the  men  who  are  doing  the  sweeping  are  saved  from  the 
further  and  almost  unbearable  disgrace  of  the  utmost  pub- 
licity of  their  misfortune,  not  that  they  are  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  really  earn  rather  than  to  receive  a  free  gift,— but 
that  the  public  is  given  an  opportunity  to  applv  the  test 
of  a  public,  unnecessary  and  unreasonable  humiliation 
to  all  who  shall  ask  for  relief.     The  motive  in  almost 
every  instance    where  labor  is  furnished  is  the  protection 
of  the  public  against  imposition;  and  not  that  the  indi- 
vidual shall  save  his  manhood  from  disgrace  as  well  as 
save  his  body  from  starvation. 

Relief  given  to  the  able-bodied  poor  ought  not  to  be 
given  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  person  in  the  same 
place  subject  to  the  same  conditions,  and  likelv  to  become 
a  permanent  applicant  for  temporary  relief.  If  in  ordinary 
times  and  under  ordinary  circumstances  one  finds  it  nec- 
essary to  become  an  applicant  for  public  relief,  it  is  quite 
likely  that  if  left  in  the  same  place  and  subject  to  the  same 
conditions  h-  will  find  it  necessarv  to  ask  again  and  again 
for  the  same  sort  of  relief. 

The  able-bodied  poor  who  are  so  poor  as  to  become  a 
publjc  charge  are  frequently  helpless  because  they  are 


228  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

vicious.  They  have  been  overborne  in  the  contest  for 
bread  because  first  overborne  in  their  conflict  with  waste- 
ful personal  habits.  There  is  a  larger  number  who  have 
not  become  a  public  charge,  in-  their  distress',  be- 
cause they  are  able  to  provide  a  proper  siipport,  but 
because  they  are  more  willing  to  suffer  in^  their  want 
than  to  bear  the  disgrace  of  public  relief.  It  is  impossible 
to  appreciate  the  number  of  sensitive  and  conscientious 
people  who  are  submitting  to  slow  starvation  rather  than 
to  the  disgrace  of  beggary.  It  is  in  vain  to  talk  to  them 
of  temperance,  of  economy,  of  a  greater  industry.  Their 
temperance  is  already  total  abstinence  from  all  kinds  of 
costly  drinks  and  from  most  kinds  of  food.  Their  econ- 
omy is  already  no  expenditure  for  anything  that  does  not 
bear  on  the  awful  problem  of  hunger  and  cold.  Their 
industry  is  a  slavery  of  toil  so  constant  and  so  deter- 
mined that  the  sense  of  weariness  is  never  absent  from 
them.  They  are  and  have  been  doing  their  best,  and 
doing  their  best  in  the  midst  of  the  competitions  which 
have  reduced  everything  to  the  basis  of  profits,  and 
being  tmable  to  procure  by  their  labor  both  profits 
for  others  and  a  living  for  themselves,  they  toil  on 
either  in  abject  misery  or  in  open  dependence.  Whether 
the  secret  of  their  want  is  wastefulness  or  their  inability  to 
endure  the  tasks  which  are  alone  provided  for  them  in  the 
labor  market — in  either  case  the  relief  which  is  necessary 
is  not  so  much  to  help  them  under  the  conditions  where 
they  have  fallen,  as  to  remove  them  to  new  conditions 
where  they  may  labor  and  not  fall. 

But  in  doing  these  things  which  should  be  done  for 
both  alike  they  must  be  administered  on  entirely  different 
plans,  both  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  and  for  the  sake  of 
society. 

The  point  of  greatest  need  in  the  case  of  the  one  is 
removal  from  temptation,  and  healthful,  useful,  interesting 
and  enforced  labor.  If  there  is  any  such  thing  as  a  crime 
against  society,  that  person  is  certainly  a  criminal  who 
seeks  to  obtain  from  society  his  living  with  the  distinct 
intention  of  returning  no  equivalent  for  what  he  receives. 
This  principle  is  true  whether  it  is  to  be  applied  to  a  specu- 


THE     PROBLEM     OF     THE     POOR.  229 

lator,  a  swindler,  a  gambler,  a  burglar,  or  a  beggar.  The 
wrong  is  in  the  purpose  to  get  something  for  nothing, 
and  the  essence  of  the  wrong  is  the  same  in  the  chances 
of  speculation,  in  the  frauds  of  the  swindler,  in  the  tricks 
of  the  gambler,  the  housebreakings  of  the  burglar,  and 
the  daily  habit  of  the  habitual  able-^bodied  beggar.  The 
purpose  to  protect  society  must  be  comprehensive  enough 
to  reach  and  include  all  of  these  classes  of  wrong-doers, 
the  beggar  along  with  the  rest. 

If  there  are  in  the  country  forty-five  thousand  tramps, 
able-bodied  and  determined  not  to  work,  as  Prof.  ^Ic- 
Cook  states,  then  society  should  make  quick  and  short 
work  with  their  settled  purpose  to  live  off  the  country, 
and  by  the  strictest,  quickest,  sharpest  discipline,  arrest,  con- 
vict and  sentence  the  whole  outfit; — not  to  a  work-house 
or  a  jail.  That  would  provide  labor  under  the  contract 
system  and  involve  both  a  serious  outlay  on  the  part  of  the 
public  and  a  serious  interference  wath  the  market  by  the 
sale  of  their  cheap  labor  products,  and  would  moreover 
complete  then  education  in  wrong-doing,  as  is  too  often 
the  case  witn  the  usual  criminal.  They  should  be  sent 
to  a  colony  organized  on  something  of  the  Holland  or 
German  plan  of  Tramp  Colonies,  and  on  the  basis  of  com- 
pulsory residence  there.  Let  their  employments  be  diver- 
sified, let  their  hours  of  labor  be  few,  let  the  industry  be 
wholesome,  let  the  equipment  be  complete;  forbid  abso- 
lutely the  sale  of  their  products  in  the  market,  but  make 
the  reward  of  the  labor  of  each  the  total  of  the  products 
of  his  own  labor,  as  nearly  as  that  can  be  determined,  these 
products  to  be  theirs  for  their  pers-onal  consumption,  or 
for  distribution  among  those  who  may  be  found  to  be 
dependent  upon  them, — ^iDut  in  no  case  let  the  products  of 
the  labor  of  those  unwilling  to  obtain  employment  for 
thcmsel'ves  be  permitted  to  come  into  open  competition 
with  the  products  of  those  who  are  so  employed.  These 
commitments  should  not  be  for  six  montns,  or  for  a  year, 
or  for  any  definite  period.  It  is  stated  by  Prof.  Peabo<:ly 
that  in  the  tiamp  colonies  of  Germany  and  Holland  not 
less  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  convicted  and  sentenced 
tramps  are  restored  to  the  ranks  of  useful  and  regular  in- 


230  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

dustry;  while  the  whole  army  of  the  able-bodied  and 
vicious  poor  under  this  plan  may  be  immediately  taken 
away  from  the  scene  of  the  temptations  which  have  been 
the  occasions  of  their  fall,  and  society  entirely  protected 
from  ♦the  grievous  annoyance  of  their  continuous  appli- 
cations for  assistance.  And  this  is  no  small  matter.  It  is 
not  a  slight  thing  to  leave  our  loved  ones  alone  and  un- 
protected in  a  neighborhood  haunted  by  tramps.  It  is  a 
constant  wrong  thus  to  expose  them,  not  so  much  per- 
haps because  of  the  awful  outrages  which  are  sometimes 
actually  committed  as  because  of  the  fear  whose  shadow 
is  never  lifted  during  the  long  an^  necessary  absences  of 
the  family's  natural  protector.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
most  characteristic  thing  of  all  this  is  the  active  authority 
of  the  State  compelling  the  self-supporting  industry  of 
those  who  are  wilfully  idle.  There  should  be  no  profit 
from  such  an  institution  to  the  State,  there  should  be  no 
temptation  to  unnecessarily  detain  the  laborers  in  such 
an  institution,  there  should  be  no  escape  for  those  con- 
victed except  through  their  reformation;  but  of  those 
actually  reformed — and  the  proportion  would  be  large — 
every  effort  should  be  made  to  assist  them  in  obtaining 
regular  and  profitable  employment  if  they  prefer  to  work 
under  the  wage  system, — or  to  transfer  those  who  would 
prefer  it,  discipline  'no  longer'  being  needed,  from  the 
colony  organized  on  the  compulsory  basis  to  one  largely 
corresponding  in  character,  but  organized  altogether  on  a 
voluntary  plan. 

This  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  care  of  the 
able-bodied  poor  whose  poverty  is  their  misfortune,  not 
their  wrong.  Their  numbers  are  larger,  their  family  con- 
nections are  more  numerous  (for  the  voluntary  tramp,  but 
very  rarely  has  any  family  connections  whatever),  tho'se 
who  are  dependent  upon  them  are  both  more  numerous 
and  more  helpless.  The  especial  thing  which  is  to  be 
saved  for  them  is  their  self-respect. 

In  their  case  all  compulsion  is  to  be  avoided.  They  are 
unable  to  obtain  employment  for  themselves;  they  are 
anxious  to  work.  They  are  now  provided  with  the  follow- 
ing alternatives:  to  tramp  in  an  honest  search  for  work 


THE     PROBLEM     OF     THE     POOR.  23I 

and  suffer  the  loss  of  everything  while  those  dependent 
upon  them  become  directly  dependent  upon  society,  or 
to  become  directly  dependent  along  with  the  families  to 
which  they  belong.  These  should  be  equipped  and  or- 
ganized under  the  authority  of  the  State  on  much  the 
same  plans  as  are  suggested  above,  only  with  the  under- 
standing that  the  men,  and  their  families,  too,  who  become 
residents  in  such  a  colony,  enter  because  absolutely  un- 
able to  obtain  any  employment  elsewhere,  or  are  only  able 
to  obtain  it  on  such  term's  as  would  lead  them  to  prefer  to 
labor  in  such  a  colony  under  government  direction  than 
to  submit  to  any  terms  offered  by  any  private  employer. 
The  advantages  of  such  an  arrangement  would  be  very 
numerous.  The  fear  of  actual  want  would  be  forever 
taken  away,  and  able-bodied  dependence,  with  its  humilia- 
tion and  its  disgrace,  -would  forever  cease.  Such  an  ar- 
rangement would  have  an  important  bearing  on  the 
contracts  of  laborers  «with  their  employers.  It  is  idle  to 
affirm  that  a  laborer  is  a  free  contracting  party  when  he  is 
given  the  alternative  to  accept  the  proposals  made  by  his 
employer  or  both  he  and  his  family  sufler  for  it.  This 
offers  at  once  another  alternative.  As  the  matter  oi  per- 
sonal suffering  for  himself  or  family  is  not  a  factor  to  be 
considered  b}  the  employer,  so  it  would  cease  once  and 
forever  to  be  a  matter  to  be  considered  by  the  laborer. 
Just  as  the  employer  discusses  whether  or  not  it  would  be 
profitable  for  him  from  a  purely  business  standpoint  to 
cut,  or  advance,  or  change,  or  maintain  any  scale  of 
wages,  and  as  he  may  do  .this  without  particularly  in- 
volving the  niatter  of  daily  bread  either  for  himself  or 
children,  so  the  laborer  would  stand  as  a  free  contract- 
ing party  actmg  solely  from  business  considerations  and 
accepting  or  refusing  the  propositions  made  on  the  ground 
of  their  justice,  and  would  always  have  the  alternative  of 
the  full  returns  of  his  labor  both  for  himself  and  family  in 
the  voluntary  colony  provided  for  the  self  support  of 
those  who  are  anxious  to  labor,  are  unAvilling  to  beg. 
and  only  ask  for  the  opportunity  for  self-support. 

The  advantages  of  these  suggestions  then  are  that  the 
tramp  shall  at  once  cease  to  annoy,  to  endanger,  or  to 


2y2  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

frighten,  or  even  to  be  a  public  burden  any  longer;  that 
the  unfortunate  shall  be  given  an  opportunity  to  help 
themselves  by  their  own  industry  without  the  humiliation 
and  wrong  of  either  public  or  private  charities. 

But  to  all  this  it  is  objected  that  the  public  cannot  give 
employment  to  the  laborer  on  the  .  one  hand  without 
adding  to  the  burdens  of  the  tax-payer  on  the  other.  Now, 
this  proposition  as  here  made  does  not  involve  increasing 
the  burdens  of  the  tax-payer, — to  be  sure  the  tax-payer 
must  furnish  the  plant,  but  the  expense  of  an  original 
plant  by  which  the  dependent  may  be  enabled  to  provide 
for  themselves  is  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  ex- 
pense which  the  tax-payer  must  also  provide  for  main- 
taining the  same  dependents  in  idleness. 

It  is  again  urged  that  as  a  matter  of  principle  society 
is  not  bound  to  give  its  unemployed  work.  Well,  is  so- 
ciety bound  to  give  its  unemployed  bread?  Whether  it  is 
bound  to  do  so  or  not,  that  is  what  it  does,  and  it  simply 
becomes  a  question  whether  the  wiser  manner  of  pro- 
viding bread  for  the  unemployed  is  to  give  them  bread 
outright,  or  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  provide  their 
own  bread,  inasmuch  as  the  one  robs  them  of  their  self- 
respect,  and  the  other  cannot  fail  to  ennoble  by  the  sense 
of  self-dependence. 

Again,  it  is  argued  that  the  suggestion  leads  the 
people  to  depend  upon  the  government,  whereas  their  de- 
pendence should  be  upon  themselves.  The  penniless  poor 
are  now  dependent  upon  the  government  to  save  their 
bodies  alive.  How  would  they  be  any  more  dependent 
upon  the  government  should  the  government  decide  to 
save  them  alive  by  giving  them  a  chance  to  feed  them- 
selves instead  of  setting  them  up  in  a  row  and  insisting 
upon  the  disgraceful  performance  of  feeding  them  out- 
right? But  the  government  in  this  country  is  the  people. 
If  the  people  are  to  depend  upon  themselves,  then  their 
dependence  must  be  directly  upon  the  very  parties  who 
are  at  the  same  time  both  thev  themselves  and  the  pfovern- 
ment,  they  themselves  being  the  government.  If  the  gov- 
ernment were  something  aside  from  the  people,  if  it  were 
not  a  matter  of  which  every  one  of  us  is  a  part,  there 


THE     PROBLEM     OF    THE     POOR.  233 

might  be  some  reason  in  saying  that  the  people  were  not 
to  depend  upon  their  government,  they  must' depend  upon 
themselves.  They  are  themselves  the  government,  and 
when  they  depend  upon  the  government  they  are  depend- 
ing upon  themselves.  The  only  way  in  which  there  could  be 
any  reason  in  the  use  of  such  language  would  be  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  depending  on  the  government  is  depend- 
ing upon  themselves  in  a  united  capacity,  while  by  de- 
pending upon  themselves  we  mean  each  depending  upon 
himself  individually.  But  industrial  organization  of  any 
sort  means  the  abandonment  of  individual  dependence 
to  some  extent  and  substituting  in  the  place  of  depend- 
ence of  the  individual  upon  his  own  strength,  dependence 
upon  the  united  strength  of  the  industrial  body  to  which 
he  belongs.  Now,  when  it  comes  to  the  question  of  pov- 
erty, the  industrial  body  upon  which  our  dependence 
immediately  rests  is  the  whole  body  of  the  people.  Our 
contention  is,  that  this  dependence,  inevitable  and  un- 
avoidable, is  better  provided  for  by  providing  employment 
whereby  dependents  may  create  their  own  bread,  than 
by  providing  bread  at  the  expense  of  one  portiont)f  society 
and  at  the  direct  and  fearful  injury  of  another  portion. 

It  is  further  argued  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  these 
people  employment  -without  bringing  the  products  of 
their  labor  into  the  markets.  That  would  be  true  if  there 
■was  only  one  kind  of  employment;  that  is,  employment 
in  making  something  to  sell.  As  in  the  case  of  com- 
pulsory residence  in  the  tramp's  colony,  so  in  the  volun- 
tary residence  of  those  who  seek  for  employment  rather 
than  bread  at  the  hands  of  society,  the  rule  should  be  in- 
exorable, viz. :  the  products  of  their  labor  should  be  for- 
bidden the  mc.rket.  They  should  be  permitted  to  produce, 
not  for  the  market,  not  for  competition  with  private  enter- 
prises, not  in  any  way  to  make  the  equipment  and  plant 
which  society  furnishes  make  them  resistless  as  com- 
petitors among  private  industrial  enterprises.  They 
should  produce  for  their  own  consumption;  their  re-ward 
should  be  what  they  produce. 

It  is  not  true,  however,  that  this  provision  ought  to 
apply  to  any  articles  which  have  been  tfiKcn  out  c;f  tin; 


234  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

field  of  so-called  free  competition',  and  are  known  to  be 
con't-rolled  in  their  production  and  distribution  by  trust 
ors^anizations.  Whenever  any  article  is  produced  by  a 
ti>ust,  and  'Controlled  by  a  trust  in  the  market,  the  object 
of  such  an  organization  always  being  to  limit  production, 
— that  is,  to  prevent  production,  tha>t  is  again,  and  finally, 
to  prevent  the  employm-ent  of  more  than>  a  limited  number 
of  producers  in  any  line,  then  society  can  be  under  no 
oblio:ation  to  protect  the  interests  of  such  a  trust.  The 
private  trust  has  free  access  to  the  market.  If  it  refu&es' 
employment  to  large  companies  of  producers,  and  society 
shall  provide  employ ment  for  those  added  to  the  unem- 
ployed by  the  operation  of  the  trust,  it  ought  as  freely  to 
permit  the  products  of  such  workers  in  the  open' market 
as  it  does  the  trust^ruled  products  of  the  same  article. 

It  is  urged  that  a  large  portion  of  the  able-bodied  poor 
would  apply  for  labor  during  the  seasons  of  the  year  when 
their  employment  would  be  difficult  and  unprofitable,  and 
would  leave  the  colony  as  soon  as  the  season  should 
arrive  when  it  would  be  possible  for  them  to  keep  them- 
selves alive  sleeping  out-of-doors  and  tramping  for  food. 
But  the  answer  is  that  under  this  system  tramps  are  not 
permitted  under  any  circumstances  whatsoever;  and 
again,  that  full  authority  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  State 
to  regulate  when  the  applicant  will  be  permitted  to  go  as 
well  as  the  condition  under  which  he  is  admitted  to  resi- 
dence, either  in  the  compulsory  or  voluntary  colony. 

It  is  again  urged  that  the  poor  do  not  want  work,  and 
that  in  the  provision  suggested  society  would  be  providing 
the  very  thing  -which  the  able-bodied  poor  do  not  want. 
The  answer  to  this  is  that  there  are  several  millions  of  peo- 
ple in  this  country  at  this  time  who  are  anxiously  seeking 
for  employment,  or  for  better  employment  than  they  are 
able  to  obtain,  and  that  for  those  who  do  not  want  em- 
ployment the  remedy  suggested  does  not  depend  upon 
their  wishes,  but  is  made  compulsory  in  every  case. 

It  is  urged  that  this  suggestion  would  deprive  the  able- 
bodied  poor  of  the  best  motive  to  industry  and  thrift;  that 
the  natural  consequence  of  idleness  is  suffering,  and  to 
provide  a  \vay  of  escape  so  that  the  idle  do  not  suffer  is  to 


THE     PROBLEM     OF     THE     POOR.  235 

put  a  premium  on  idleness.  But  no  pro-vision  is  made 
for  maintaining  the  idle  without  industry,  but  that  the 
multitudes  of  persons  who  are  now  o'btainin.G:  an  uncertain 
living  in  idleness  will  be  compelled  at  once  to  abandon 
their  idleness  and  to  become  productive  workers.  Again, 
the  motiv^e  of  industry  which  is  stronger  than  any  other 
is  the  hope  for  success,  and  the  cause  of  idleness  which  is 
greater  than  any  other  is  despair.  Now,  this  proposition 
always  opens  the  way  for  ne^v  hope  and  always  shuts  out 
despair,  for  no  mattet  what  misfortunes  may  have  be- 
fallen one  the  door  is  open  for  a  speedy  return  to  honor- 
able self-support. 

Finally,  it  is  urged  that  it  is  not  good  for  any  com- 
l)any  of  people  to  withdraw  from  the  balance  of  the  world 
and  to  attempt  to  maintain  their  separate  and  exclusive 
Avelfare.  It  is  not  so  much  that  one  company  of  persons 
are  separated  from  another  in  the  matter  of  personal  con- 
tact which  hurts,  as  not  being  separated  from  each  other 
in  the  matter  of  personal  contact,  but  at  the  same  time 
being  separated  in  social,  intellectual  and  industrial  in- 
terests. ]\Ir.  Blaine's  defense  of  the  early  youth  of  Presi- 
dent Garfield  is  in  point.  'Sh.  Garfield  had  been  poor,  had 
lived  on  the  frontier,  had  endured  privation,  but  not  as 
compared  with  those  about  him.  He  had  never  felt  the 
weakness  and  disgrace  of  poverty,  for  in  his  poverty  all 
those  about  him  were  as  poor  as  himself.  The  poverty  of 
Lincoln  and  Garfield  were  not  inconsistent  with  the  great- 
est virtues  and  with  the  highest  self-respect.  Our  sugges- 
tion does  not  involve  separation  from  the  world.  Associa- 
tion and  companionship  among  one's  equals  under 
healthful  and  helpful  conditions  is  fully  provided  for;  but 
if  it  did,  the  separation  of  the  worthy  poor  from  humilia- 
ting contact  v.ith  the  worthless  rich  is  not  a  misfortune, 
but  a  blessing. 

And  non'  as  to  the  fourth  and  last  class,  the  poor  who 
are  not  penniless.  Their  need  is  organization,  that  is  all. 
Unorganized  they  are  unable  to  equip  themselves  for 
labor,  or  each  working  alone, to  produce  by  his  own  toil 
his  own  living.  But  organized,  their  joint  possessions 
would  readily  equip  them  with  the  land,  the  machinery, 


2^b  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

and  the  raw  materials  necessary  to  their  proper  mainten- 
ance. Tlie  problem  of  their  poverty  is  wholly  a  problem 
of  organization.  With  these  society  need  not  interfere. 
They  are  not  now  a  public  charge.  Their  poverty  consists 
of  an  undue  dependence  on  those  who  control  the  means 
■which  they  must  use  in  order  to  become  producers  at  "all. 
Unorganized  this  dependence  must  remain.  Organized 
they  substitute  for  this  helpless  dependence  upon  their 
masters  a  mutual  interdependence  upon  each  other.  Their 
joint  possessions  v^ould  equip  them  for  production  inde- 
pendent of  thj  capitalist.  The  problem  ol  their  poverty  is 
wholly  a  proiblem  of  organization. 

Organization  rules.  It  is  the  genius  of  this  century. 
No  Oine  who  succeeds  at  all  can  succeed  without  it.  Those 
•who  obtain  payments  of  interest,  or  rents  or  profits,  and 
those  who  wui  the  prizes  of  commerce,  win  these  prizes 
and  obtain  these  payments  because  they  or  some  one  for 
them  have  created,  or  at  least  control,  industrial  or  com- 
mercial organizations.  There  is  no  other  way  out  for  the 
industrial  forces.  They  must  organize.  The  usual  labor 
organization  is  an  organization  simply  to  control  wages 
by  dictating  terms  to  enterprises  owned  and  managed  by 
others.  They  will  be  able  to  secure  the  whole  product, 
they  will  be  able  to  save  for  themselves  the  losses  in  ex- 
change, and  the  payments  now  made  to  capitalists,  land- 
lords and  managers  only  by  organizing — not  to  dictate 
terms  to  enterprises  owned  and  managed  by  other  people, 
but  to  create,  enterprises  of  their  own  in  which  they  them- 
selves shall  manage  exchanges,  own  their  capital,  be  their 
own  landlords,  and  manage  their  own  enterprises,  and  the 
workers  are  ready  for  such  a  movement.  Every  labor 
organization  in  existence,  and  all  political  movements  in 
which  the  workers,  whether  farmers  or  mechanics,  are 
largely  interested,  everywhere  demonstrate  that  the  most 
thoughtful  and  capable  workers  in  all  the  land  are  looking 
for^are  feeling  after  some  form  of  organization  by  which 
they  can  do  these  very  things.  The  trades  unions  are  not 
w^edded  to  the  wage  system"^.  They  fight  for  better  wages 
because  no  other  fighting  program  has  been  offered  them. 
The  workers  do  not  work  for  wages  because  they  are 


THE     PROBLEM     Ol'     THE     POOR.  237 

especially  in  love  with  the  wage  system,  or  because  they 
prize  the  guarantee  which  it  provides,  that  in  consideration 
of  their  surrendering  a  large  share  of  their  products  they 
shall  be  guaranteed  their  possession  of  the  balance.  To 
use  the  form  of  expression  familiar  among  the  workers,  if 
they  could  "once  get  their  own  hands  on  their  own  tools" 
they  /would  gladly  surrender  any  claims  they  may  have 
upon  employers,  and  substitute  for  these  complete  re- 
liance upon  themselves. 


COLLECTIVE    AND     PRIVATE     OWNERSHIP. 

Life  begins  with  a  struggle  to  get  possession  of  one's 
self.  A  little  child's  first  struggle  is-  to  possess  himself 
of  his  hands,  his  feet;  it  is  learning  to  walk,  to  lift,  to  get 
the  mast-ery  over  that  part  of  the  universe  which  makes 
up  its  feeble  personality.  But  before  the  strife  for  the 
possession  of  himself  has  achieved  its  victory  and  he 
holds  possession  of  his  physical  and  mental  powers  he 
begins  another  struggle  for  the  possession  and  control 
of  at  least  some  part  of  the  universe  outside  of  his  own 
personality.  He  never  raises  the  question  whether  it  is- 
appropriate  for  him  to  use  his  hands  and  feet,  they  were  so 
evidently  intended  for  his  use  that  he  immediately  appro- 
priates them  and  begins  their  exercise  and  development. 
Never  does  he  question  the  propriety  of  taking  possession 
of  all  the  things  that  lie  around  him,  for  every  little  child 
so  far  as  he  is  able  to  appropriate  it  and  use  it  owns  the 
earth.  In  his  struggle  to  possess  his  hands,  his  feet,  to 
get  in  possession  of  himself,  no  one  rises  to  dispute  hisi 
right  of  ownership.  But  when  the  struggle  for  possession 
reaches  beyond  his  own  personality  immediately  a  dis- 
pute arises  and  the  possession  of  every  inch  of  ground 
is  hotly  contested.  If  he  did  not  use  his  own  hands  no 
other  could  use  them  in  his  stead.  If  he  does  not  use 
Hie  o.rticles  of  value  which  lie  around  him  outside  of  him- 
self there  are  others  striving  for  their  possession.  He 
uses  his  hands,  or  they  go  unused.  Things  of  value  out- 
side of  himself  he  may  use,  but  if  he  does  not  some  other 
vrill.  It  is  this  possibility  of  common  use  of  the  thing 
which  is  not  a  direct  personal  attribute  which  is  the  occa- 
sion for  the  struggle  for  its  possession.  No  one  ques- 
tions his  right  to  use  his  hands,  but  the  use  of  the  air,  of 

238 


COLLECTIVE     AND     PRIVATE     OWNERSHIP.  239 

the  sunlig-ht,  of  the  earth,  of  food,  of  tools,  is>  as  n'ecessary 
and  the  ii'eed  to  us-e  them  as  evident  as  the  use  of  his  own 
hands.  The  difference  being  that  he  may  us^e  his  hands 
by  hims-elf,  but  all  other  things  outside  of  himself  there 
is  the  possibility  of  a  use  in  common  and  a  necessary 
modification  of  the  right  to  exclusive  possession.  Is 
there  any  principle  running  through  nature  by  which 
we  may  determine  what  those  things  are  which  appro- 
priately belong  to  collective  ownership  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  private  ownership  on  the  other? 

Here  is  the  doctrine  of  collective  and  private  prop- 
erty.    The  core  of  all  ownership  is  in  the  right  to  use. 
Whatever  one  may  use  separately  he  may  own  separately. 
Whatever  men  must  use  together  they  ought  to  own  to- 
gether.    It  is  admitted  on  all  hands*  that  the  common 
ownership  of  the  public  highway  is  altogether  appropri- 
ate.   From  the  city  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  it  is  impossible  for 
any  one  to  go  outside  of  town  except  they  pay  toll  to  a 
private  corporation.    Private  corporations  own  the  high- 
ways.    It  is  contended  that  the  private  ownership  of  the 
public  highway  is  not  wise.    All  men  must  use  them  to- 
gether; the  wiser  way  w^ould  be  that  all  men  should  own 
Them  together.    The  railways  are  a  part  of  the  system,  of 
public  highways.     In  this  country  the  question  of  the 
common  ownership  of  the  roads  had  just  been-  fought  to  a 
finish  when  the  railway  succeeded  the  w^agon  road  in  the 
most  important  share  of  travel  and  transportation,  and 
thos-e  who  had  fought  for  private  possession  of  the  public 
highways  consented  to  the  public  ownership  of  the  wagon; 
roads,  but  took  private  possession  of  the  iron  highway.  _ 

Why  should  I  have  a  part  ownership  in  the  roads  in 
common  with  all  my  fellows?  Why  should  my  interest 
in  the  roads  be  so  vested  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to 
divert  any  share  of  this  common  ownership  to  any  ex- 
clusive personal  use?  Why  is  it  so  arranged  that  a  part 
of  my  property  vested  in  the  public  highway  shall  be 
so  placed  that  the  only  way  I  can  get  the  benefit  of  my 
property  there  placed  is  by  walking  or  riding  along  the 
roads?  The  highwavs  are  a  matter  of  common  necessity. 
All  men  must  use  them  together,  and  therefore  all  ought 


240  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

to  own  them  togiether,  but  not  in  such  a  way  that  any  one 
may  so  us-e  his  share  as-  to  make  the  balance  in  any  high- 
way unavailable  for  the  use  of  others.  If  it  is  necessary 
that  the  highways  be  held  in  common  ownership  be- 
cause I  may  want  to  go  somew^here  and  the  free  use  of 
the  highway  will  be  an  advantage  to  me,  is  it  not  quite  as- 
necessary  that  I  should  be  alive  and  able  to  travel,  have 
the  wherewithal  to  be  kept  alive  so  that  I  may  be  able  to 
,  travel,  as  to  have  the  road  provided,  if  bqing  able,  I  should 
wish  to  travel?  What  are  the  things  necessary  for  pro- 
viding the  neoessary  protection  and  equipment  in  order 
that  I  may  be,  and  remain,  alive  and  able  to  travel,  if  I 
should  so  choose,  these  highways  of  common  ownership? 
I  must  have  clothing.  Somebody  must  have  a  loom. 
I  must  have  food.  Somebody  must  have  a  mill,  and  a 
bakery.  I  miist  have  fuel;  somebody  must  have  a  mine 
and  a  furnace.  I  must  have  shelter;  somebody  must  have 
a  lumber  yard,  a  planing  mill.  Can  I  individually  own 
all  these  things?  It  i&  as'  impracticable  and  impossible 
as  for  a  single  individual  to  own  all  the  highways.  In 
any  mine  the  machinery  which  is-  necessary  to  provide 
for  my  welfare  is  sufificient  to  provide  for  the  welfare 
of  many.  The  only  way  this  machinery  can  be  used  at 
all  is  for  it  to  be  used  for  the  common  benefit.  If  it  is' 
to  be  devoted  to  the  use  of  all,  it  ought  to  be  subject  to 
the  ownership  of  all. 


THE  EMPLOYERS  OF  LABOR. 

In  the  discussion  of  labor  problems  it  is  quite  the  habit 
to  consider  capital  and  labor  as  the  two  sides  of  great 
contending  interests.  The  employer  and  the  capitalist  are 
treated  as  one  and  the  same,  and  all  questions  of  lalx)r 
reform  are  regarded  as  presented  in  the  interest  of  the 
wage  worker  only.  It  is  assumed  that  the  employer,  he 
being  the  capitalist,  is  the  independent  master  of  his  o'wn 
time,  that  he  may  come  and  go  as  he  chooses,  and  that  if 
in  his  shops  there  is  overwork,  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren, sub-contracts  with  sweaters,  or  any  other  wrong 
against  the  'wage-worker, — that  the  employer  is  both  the 
immediate  offender  and  is  solely  responsible,  that  he  bears 
himself  no  burdens,  knows  no  wants,  and  feels  the  pres- 
sure of  no  sorrows  so  stern  and  terrible  as  do  the  laborers. 

Now,  this  may  sometimes  be  the  case,  but  it  is  so  rarely 
so  that  to  assume  that  it  is  true  in  the  discussion  of  in- 
dustrial problems  is  entirely  misleading.  There  are  three 
parties  in  production, — not  two, — the  laborer,  the  em- 
ployer, and  the  capitalist  (counting  the  capitalist  and  land- 
lord together).  The  employer  is  rarely  the  capitalist,  the 
laborer  is  rarely  his  own  employer.  On  the  one  hand  the 
laborer  asks  for  wages,  on  the  other  hand  the  capitaHst 
asks  for  interest  and  rents.  The  laborer  seeks  to  avoid  all 
risks,  consents  to  labor  only  when  his  -wages  are  guaran- 
teed in  advance.  The  capitalist  intends  to  take  none  of  the 
risks  of  business,  and  consents  to  bear  his  share  in  j)ro- 
duction  only  when  interest  and  rents  are  provided  in  ad- 
vance. The  laborer  must  advance  his  labor  and  take  the 
risk  of  obtaining  his  wages  after  the  labor  is  performed, 
but  the  law  extends  to  him  a  special  protection  and  tneir 
payment  is  made  a  special  claim  against  the  products  of 

341 


242  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

his  toil.  But  the  capitaHst  advances  no  money  until  his 
principal  and  interest  are  covered  by  security. 

The  employer  is  a  third  party.  He  is  something  of  a 
capitalist, — he  is  something  o^f  a  laborer.  He  does  not 
belong  wholly  to  either  class,  but  he  is  required  to  bear 
alone  all  the  risks  of  both.  Between  these  two,  the  guar- 
anteed capitalist  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  guaranteed 
laborer  on  the  other,  the  employer, the  man  who  endeavors 
to  organize  industry,  to  manage  business,  to  make  pro- 
duction possible,  must  stand  alone.  On  the  one  hand  he 
must  guard  the  interests  of  the  capitalist  who  has  invested 
with  him  and  be  ever  ready  instantly  to  answer  his  calls, — 
and  on  the  other  he  must  make  each  separate  daily  task 
of  every  laborer  subject  to  his  direction  his  task  as  v/ell. 
Not  that  he  must  do  it  again,  but  into  every  task  must  be 
a  certain  admixture  of  brain  and  heart,  and  while  each 
separate  laborer  thinks  and  strives  over  his  allotted  task, 
the  employer  must  think  and  strive  for  all.  His  security 
may  prove  inadequate  and  the  capitalist  may  lose  his  in- 
vestment. Disaster  may  suddenly  wreck  his  business  and 
the  laborer  may  lose  some  portion  of  his  wages, — ^but 
harm  can  reach  neither  the  capitalist  nor  the  laborer  ex- 
cept as  it  first  shall  have  ruined  the  employer. 

In  most  States  insurance  companies  are  not  permitted 
to  enter  upon  their  business  until  they  shall  have  first  estab- 
lished their  abiHty  to  bear  the  losses  the  risks  of  which  they 
attempt  to  carry. 

Consider  some  of  the  risks  -which  the  ordinary  em- 
ployer must  carry,  and  which  he  must  carry  alone.  The 
insurance  company  assures  that  a  man  in  good  health  will 
complete  his  natural  term  oi  life.  They  guarantee  against 
many  accidents  and  contingencies  which  may  arise  to 
shorten  the  days  of  the  insured.  An  insurance  company 
assures  that  a  given  piece  of  property  will  not  be  de- 
stroyed by  fire  during  a  certain  period,  but  there  are 
many  causes  which  are  not  altogether  preventable  and 
which  may  cause  the  destruction  of  the  property,  and 
against  these  the  insurance  company  carries  the  risk. 

But  an  employer;  what  are  some  of  the  things  which 
may  arise,  which,  destroying  his  business,  may  work  harm 


THE     EMPLOYERS     OF     LABOR.  243 

to  the  capitalist  or  laborer  whose  interest  or  wages  he  has 
guaranteed?  A  change  in  the  market  which  he  could  not 
foresee,  a  loss  at  sea,  a  new  invention,  a  railway  strike,  a 
defaulting  debtor,  a  sudden  death,  a  dishonest  employe, 
a  disastrous  fire,  a  breaking  bank,  a  change  in  the  laws,  a 
failure  in  his  health, — any  of  these  may  occur  any  day  in 
connection  with  almost  any  line  of  business  and  may  in- 
stantly call  for  the  reorganization  or  rearrangement  of 
every  detail  in  a  business  already  so  exacting  as  to  have 
carried  the  management  to  the  last  limit  of  endurance. 
Against  any  of  these,  against  all  of  these,  every  employer 
carries  the  risk. 

Now,  what  of  the  record  they  make?  Insurance  com- 
panies are  constantly  raising  premiums,  addin^j  new  re- 
quirements, and  the  insurance  laws  are  all  the  time  being 
made  more  stringent  in  their  requirements  in  order  that 
the  single  items  of  a  premature  death  or  a  disastrous  fire 
may  be  provided  for.  Of  the  number  of  companies 
which  organize  to  undertake  insurance,  the  larger  share 
of  them  all,  sooner  or  later,  are  overwhelmed  in  disaster. 
They  have  undertaken  to  carry  risks  which  have  proved 
greater  than  they  have  been  able  to  carry.  The  same  is 
true  with  the  employers  of  labor.  It  is  estimated  that  of 
of  the  private  enterprises  which  are  undertaken,  from  75 
to  95  per  cent,  of  them  all,  sooner  or  later,  come  to  bank- 
ruptcy and  failure.  And  those  who  do  not  fail  are  held 
on  through  the  years  by  the  most  exhaustive  personal 
care  and  the  terrible  industry  of  the  responsible  employer. 

Who  are  the  overworked?  the  children  bearing  bur- 
dens beyond  their  years;  the  mechanic  who  toils  the  long 
hours  as  he  walks  the  floor  in  his  daily  task, — but,  above 
all,  the  employer  who  walks  the  steady  round  of  careful 
oversight  by  day,  and  walks  the  floor  by  night  overbur- 
dened by  the  unutterable  anguish  of  anxiety  that  never 
ceases  from  the  hour  he  consents  to  be  a  manager  of  men 
until  life's  la^t  task  is  done.  No  others  bear  such  burdens 
as  he — no  others  carry  such  risks — no  others  are  so 
thoroughly  and  so  hopelessly  the  slaves  of  fortune.  His 
time  is  not  his  own.  He  does  not  go  and  come  as  he 
chooses.    He  does  not  do  as  he  wishes.     He  does  as  he 


244  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

must.  He,  too,  is  a  victim  of  the  same  system  of  which  the 
laborer  complains.  The  hours  of  labor,  the  prices  he  pays, 
the  usages  of  the  trade,  are  all  fixed  by  others,  and  that  by 
the  basest  in  his  line  of  business,  and  it  is  his  part  to  sub- 
mit or  withdraw  from  the  contest.  The  margin  of  profits 
is  small,  the  elements  which  enter  into  his  enterprise  are 
numerous,  there  are  few  of  them  which  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  control;  the  probabilities  of  coming  disaster  in 
spite  of  toil  and  care  and  conscience  were  never  so  numer- 
ous as  now.  During  the  recent  years  the  streets  have 
been  filled  with  the  unemployed,  but  the  insane  asylums 
have  been  gathering  in  their  former  employers.  The 
brightest  mt;n  have  grown  old  in  their  youth,  their  young 
heads  are  sprinkled  with  gray  hairs,  their  public  duties 
are  neglected,  their  social  opportunities  are  forsaken, — 
tlieir  appreciation  of  literature,  of  art,  of  the  truths  of 
science,  have  been  pushed  aside  for  the  dull  and  stupid 
routine  of  their  thankless  task.  They  have  blinded  their 
artistic  vision,  they  have  starved  their  moral  and  mental 
faculties,  they  have  silenced  their  worthy  aspirations;  and 
all  these  they  have  laid  on  mammon's  altar  that  they  may 
trv  to  win  where  the  overwhelming  majority  are  doomed 
to  certain  and  hopeless  disaster. 

It  is  true  that  the  wage-worker  should  be  guaranteed 
shorter  hours,  better  pay,  and  certain  employment.  It  is 
true  that  child-labor  should  be  forbidden,  that  overwork 
and  underpay  should  cease.  But  of  all  the  classes  who 
suffer  in  the  world's  industrial  and  commercial  warfare, 
there  are  none  whose  burdens  are  greater  than  those  who 
attempt  to  carry  on  their  own  shoulders  all  the  chances 
incident  to  our  living  together  in  society. 

Society  ought  not  to  permit  her  children  to  toil,  nor 
her  full-grown  workers  to  be  overtaxed ;  but  there  is  no 
class  of  workers  so  misunderstood,  so  overburdened,  so 
badly  treated,  nor  whose  position  calls  more  loudly  for  re- 
form than  the  employers  themselves.  Guaranteed  returns 
for  capital  and  guaranteed  wages  for  labor  and  both  guar- 
anteed only  by  an  industrial  game  of  chance  must  cease. 
There  is  a' better  basis  for  industry  and  commerce  than 
the  chances  of  a  game  of  chance. 


SELF-SUPPORT  IN   SCHOOL. 

The  particular  thing  which  seems  to  be  most  charac- 
teristic of  the  work  we  are  undertaking  to  do,  is  the  fact 
that  we  propose  that  our  students  shall  at  the  sanie  time 
pursue  their  regular  studies  and  provide  for  their  own 
support.  There  is  no  other  question  in  connection  with 
our  work  which  is  so  often  raised  as  the  one  regarding 
the  practicability  of  this  proposal.  Can  a  young  man 
work  and  study  at  the  same  time,  that  is,  work  enough 
each  dav  to  provide  for  his  own  comfortable  livelihood, 
and  study  enough  each  day  to  make  the  arrangement 
worth  while? 

There  are  three  points  to  be  considered  in  answering 
this  question:  First,  How  much  work  is  necessary  in  or- 
der to  provide  a  comfortable  living?  Second,  How  many 
hours  of  study  each  day  are  necessary  in  order  to  make 
the  effort  to  study  at  all  a  wise  undertaking ;  and,  finally, 
can  a  young  man  of  reasonable  strength  wisely  under- 
take both  these  hours  of  labor  and  hours  of  study? 

A  comfortable  livelihood  involves  food,  shelter,  cloth- 
ing and  fuel.  A  capable  young  man  would  certainly  chop 
wood  enough  in  a  week  working  five  hours  each  day,  to 
provide  his  own  fuel  for  a  year ;  but  if  he  was  a  part  of  a 
company  working  with  machinery  which  would  cost  less 
than  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  worker  in  the  combina- 
tion, the  fuel  for  a  year  for  each  worker  could  be  pro- 
vided in  less  than  an  average  of  five  hours  each.  It  is 
our  plan  to  make  him  a  part  of  such  a  combination,  and, 
therefore,  the  fuel  necessary  for  his  year's  supply  is  easily 
provided  for. 

In  the  matter  of  shelter.  His  room  and  its  furnishings 
would  not  represent  to  exceed  two  hundred  days'  work  of 

245 


246  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS, 

five  hours  each,  but  it  would  provide  for  his  accommoda- 
tion, or  the  accommodation  of  some  one  else,  for  a  period 
of  at  least  ten  years,  which  would  make  twenty  days  of 
five  hours  each  for  each  year  to  provide  his  shelter.  If  he 
is  a  member  of  a  combination  of  young  men  working  to- 
gether through  the  years  for  the  purpose  of  providing 
their  own  food  and  shelter,  this  is  practicable. 

Again,  as  to  clothing.  Suppose  it  takes  the  products 
of  his  labor  in  the  field  for  twenty  days  to  purchase  the 
raw  material  for  his  year's  clothing,  and  ten  days  longer 
for  their  manufacture.  That  would  make  thirty  days  of 
five  hours  each  devoted  to  providing  his  clothing. 

The  one  thing  that  remains  is  food.  How  long  would 
it  take  a  young  man  to  produce  vegetables,  fruits,  fiour, 
butter,  and  eggs,  and  most  of  the  things  which  he  would 
use  for  food,  provided  he  had  the  lands,  tools,  orchards, 
herds,  and  every  other  such  equipment  necessary  to  em- 
ploy his  labor  in  their  production?  It  is  very  difficult  to 
estimate  how  much  time  would  be  required,  but  it  is  cer- 
tainly safe  to  say  that  if  employed  to  good  advantage  for 
a  period  of  fifty  days  of  five  hours  each  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  him  to  eat  up  during  the  year  the  food  that  this 
labor  would  produce.  This  gives  us  a  total  of  one  hun- 
dred and  one  days  of  employment  of  five  hours  each  under 
these  estimates,  by  which  it  is  believed  a  capable  young 
man  can  produce  his  livelihood  for  a  year.  But,  instead 
of  providing  for  one  hundred  and  one  days  of  labor  ac- 
cording to  these  estimates,  we  have  provided  in  our  plan 
for  three  hundred  days,  allowing  for  holidays  and  days 
ofi. 

Of  course,  if  a  single  individual  should  set  out  to  work 
five  hours  a  day  he  would  find  it  difficult  to  find  an  em- 
ployer who  could  make  use  of  these  hours.  If  he  did  find 
an  empl-oyer  who  could  make  use  of  these  hours,  his 
wages  would  be  small,  and  he  would  need  to  purchase  in 
the^  market  at  the  highest  retail  prices  all  of  the  things 
which  he  would  need  to  use.  It  would  be  impossibte, 
again,  for  him  individually  to  produce  with  his  own  labor 
all  of  the  different  things  which  he  would  use,  and  hence, 
the  necessity  of  organization  for  carrying  on  the  processes 


SELF-SUPPORT     IN     SCHOOL.  247 

by  which  the  means  of  hvehhood  are  to  be  produced  in 
the  same  manner  in  which  we  have  combined  for  carry- 
ing on  the  studies.    It  is  very  seldom  now  that  a  young 
man  starts  out  to  get  an  education  without  entering  into 
a  great  combination  with  other  young  men,  and  they  to- 
gedier  make  possible  the  securing  of  instruction,  the  ad- 
vantage of  laboratories  and  libraries  on  a  scale  which  in 
any  single-handed  effort  would  be  altogether  impossible. 
It  is  as  reasonable  and  practicable  to  combine  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  tools  and  the  organization  for  the  di- 
rect production  of  their  livelihood  as  it  is  to  combine  for 
securing  the  tools  and  the  organization  for  their  equip- 
ment in  studv,  and  this  is  the  peculiar  thing  in  the  indus- 
trial basis  of  our  school  organization.    Our  students  work 
directly  on  the  land  and  on  the  raw  materials  to  produce 
directly  for  their  own  use  most  of  the  articles  of  their 
own  consumption ;  and  they  combine  together  in  consid- 
erable numbers  in  doing  this  in  order  that  the  equipment 
may  be  larger  and  that  their  industry  may  be  so  organ- 
ized as  to  make  the  production  of  a  greater  variety  of  arti- 
cles practicable. 

And  now  as  to  the  hours  of  study.  It  is  no  longer  dis- 
puted by  anv  one,  that  good  physical  conditions  are  nec- 
essarv  for  good  intellectual  work.  Neither  is  it  disputed 
that  five  hours  a  day  of  reasonable  and  healthful  employ- 
ment helps  in  a  most  important  m.anner  right  physical 
conditions.  If  this  is  true,  after  the  five  hours  of  work 
is  performed,  which  is  allotted  to  our  boys  in  order  that 
they  may  produce  their  living,  there  still  remains  the 
afternoon  and  evening  for  intellectual  pursuits,  and  this 
time  is  not  only  saved  for  them,  but  they  are  themselves 
in  the  best  physical  condition  possible  for  the  proper  use 
of  these  hours  of  studv. 

There  are  in  this  country  at  least  five  thousand  young 
men  who  are  at  this  time' working  their  way  through 
school  single-handed,  without  tools  and  without  organi- 
zation, and  thev  rank  in  their  classes  with  those  who  do 
not  labor,  and  thev  graduate  as  a  rule  in  better  physical 
condition  and  in  their  life  work  achieve  more  marked  suc- 
cess than  their  associates  in  school  who  went  to  their  les- 


248  EVOLUTIONARY    POLITICS. 

sons  unhindered — we  should  say  unsupported — by  any 
hours  of  previous  physical  exertion.  If  it  is  worth  while 
to  study  at  all  it  is  certainly  worth  while  to  study  when  at 
your  best.  The  five  hours  of  labor  required  simply  puts  a 
man  in  the  position  where  in  the  study  remaining  he  shall 
be  able  to  do  his  best. 

As  to  whether  it  is  possible  to  do  both  the  labor  and 
the  study  at  the  same  time,  there  can  be  no  question  Ic 
is  not  only  possible,  but  it  is  more  healthful,  more  pro- 
ductive of  strong  men,  of  better  scholars,  and  of  a  higher 
order  of  self-respect  to  do  so  than  not  to  do  so. 

During  the  short  time  that  our  school  has  been  in  op- 
eration if  there  is  one  thing  that  has  been  absolutely  dem- 
onstrated, it  is  that  work  and  study  may  go  together,  and 
ought  to  go  together,  that  the  more  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand young  people  in  this  country  who  are  io-day  anx- 
ious for  a  higher  education  have  the  ability  in  their  own 
strength  and  industry,  if  it  be  but  equipped  and  organized, 
to  provide  for  themselves  their  own  livelihood  while  ac- 
quirmg  for  themselves  their  own  education. 

But  more  important  still  is  the  relation  of  self-support 
to  the  matter  of  self-respect.  A  very  large  lumber  of 
the  young  people  who  are  attending  school  and  are  en- 
deavoring to  earn  their  own  way  while  doing  so  are  in  re- 
ceipt of  favors,  assistance,  gifts  of  money,  tuitions,  old 
clothes,  anything  to  help  them  in  their  work.  In  m.any  of 
them,  to  some  extent  at  least,  there  is  a  habit  of  depend- 
ence, the  attitude  of  mind  which  regards  labor  as  a  mis- 
fortune and  an  unearned  donation  as  entirely  proper,  even 
as  an  evidence  of  Providential  regard  for  themselves. 
Now,  labor  is  not  a  misfortune.  Idleness  and  the  disposi- 
tion to  be  idle  is  a  misfortune  if  it  cannot  be  avoided,  and  a 
disgrace  if  it  can  be. 

There  is  no  reason  why  young  men  or  women  with 
healthy  bodies  should  be  dependent  upon  any  one  else,  or 
anything  else,  for  their  support  while  in  study,  than  their 
own  strength,  provided  their  labor  is  properly  equipped 
and  organized.  To  organize  and  equip  for  this  labor  is 
what  ought  to  be  proposed ;  not  free  gifts  of  tuition,  or 
food,  or  clothes,  old  or  new.    This  is  whcit  our  school  at- 


SELF-SUPPORT    IN     SCHOOL.  24Q 

tempts.  While  it  will  give  absolutely  nothing  to  any  one, 
it  will  furnish  the  opportunity  for  ablebodied,  industrious 
young  people,  without  gifts,  without  humiliation,  tf)  pro- 
vide directly  by  their  own  labor  for  their  own  liveliliood 
while  engaged  in  study ;  and  the  boys  who  graduate  from 
our  school  will  carry  with  them  the'  habit  of  self-depend- 
ence, rather  than  dependence  upon  others.  The  special 
Providence  for  which  they  will  be  grateful  will  be  the 
Providence  which  gave  them  their  own  strength  and 
made  possible  the  employment  of  their  own  labor  ;  not  the 
gifts  of  those  more  fortunate  than  they  among  their  fel- 
lows, but  the  direct  gift  of  their  own  physical  and  intellec- 
tual endowments  by  their  Maker. 

Most  men  must  live  lives  of  toil.  All  men  ought  to  be 
industrious,  and  ought  to  regard  all  necessary  labor  as 
dignified  and  honorable.  In  what  other  way  can  these 
lessons  be  taught  so  well  as  in  a  school  where'labor  is  re- 
quired from  all,  where  labor  is  the  one  payment  for  the 
daily  charges  which  all  must  pay?  Thus  labor  becomes 
associated  with  that  which  is  best,  most  joyous,  most  com- 
mendable in  our  daily  life.  It  ceases  to  be  drudgerv,  it  is 
no  longei  a  slave  driver's  task.  It  is  at  once  the  glad  ex- 
pression of  our  bodily  life  and  the  means,  of  its  support. — 
From  discussions  of  the  People's  University. 


GRADUATION. 

There  is  no  time  in  a  scholar's  career,  provided  he  is  a 
college  man,  when  life  is  fuller  of  enthusiasm,  when  there 
.  ■  more  hope  in  it,  when  there  is  more  satisfaction  in  being 
a  scholar,  or  at  least  a  student,  than  when  his  name  has 
fust  been  entered  and  his  rank  established  as  a  freshman 
in  college  There  is  no  time  when  his  life  is  usually  fuller 
of  perplexity,  of  wonder  as  to  what  is  to  be,  or  as  to  how 
't  is  to  come  about,  than  when  the  senior  year  is  over  and 
liis  diploma  is  in  his  hand.  At  his  entering  as  a  freshman 
lie  is  just  admitted  to  the  school,  has  just  become  a  part  of 
it,  he  feels  himself  as  in  a  place  with  a  career  of  honorable 
endeavor  and  achievement  within  his  grasp.  He  has  grad- 
uated out  of  the  high  school  and  graduated  into  the  col- 
lege. As  he  finishes  his  senior  year  he  must  let  go  of  the 
old  college,  and  must  take  hold  of  something  else.  The 
thing  he  lets  go  of  is  to  him  very  tangible.  It  has  been  the 
most  real  thing  in  his  life ;  and  all  this  he  is  graduating  out 
of  and  graduating  into — nowhere. 

Why  should  he  graduate  out  of  the  college,  when  he 
has  once  graduated  into  it?  Why  should  the  school  pro- 
vide for  four  years  of  intellectual  culture  and  intellectual 
life,  and  make  no  provision  for  the  senior  graduate  enter- 
ing vitally  and  permanently  into  the  intellectual  and  social 
purpose  of  the  old  college,  to  add  his  life  as  a  new  factor 
in  the  career  of  the  institution  which  has  done  most  for 
liim,  and  for  which  he  entertains  the  most  sincere  afifec- 
lion?  The  answer  is,  that  the  course  in  school  is  a  course 
of  training,  that  real  life  finds  its  real  satisfaction  and  ful- 
fills its  real  purpose  in  the  strife  and  struggle  outside  the 
schools,  and  in  the  stern  encounter  of  life's  conflicts.  But 
v/by  should  life  be  filled  with  stern  encounters?     Why 

2E5o 


GRADUATK^V 


251 


should  life  be  a  conflict,  unless  it  be  with  our  own  foibles, 
shortcomings,  intellectual  and  social  errors?  The  world! 
which  makes  its  chief  business  striving  to  get  and  to  pos- 
sess most,  can  only  conceive  of  the  school  as  a  training  in 
the  art  of  getting  and  possessing.  If  our  conception  of 
life  was  only  changed  so  that  life  should  fulfill  its  purpose, 
not  in  getting  and  possessing,  but  in  being,  in  thinking 
noblv,  m  acting  humanely,  in  loving  wisely  and  well, — if 
real  life  were  only  understood  to  consist,  not  of  the  things 
which  we  possess,  but  of  the  things  that  we  are,  then  the 
school  career  would  have  a  better  meaning:  and  as  we 
change  our  notion  of  our  life,  we  must  change  the  notion 
of  the  training  best  adapted  for  life's  preparation. 

The  fact  is,  that  for  most  college  men  about  the  only 
share  they  have  in  the  world's  best  intellectual  life  is  the 
meager  share  they  get  while  in  school  and  college.  If 
there  was  some  way  by  which  the  intellectual  life,  the  so- 
cial ambitions,  the  kindly  and  humane  purposes,  which 
are  cherished  while  in  college  could  be  projected  into  the 
days  that  are  to  follow  graduation, — if,  instead  of  grad- 
uating out  of  the  institution  they  really  graduated  in  some 
definite  and  real  form  into  the  institution,  to  find  the  ful- 
fillment of  life's  purpose  as  well  as  preparation  for  it  with 
the  old  mother  college — if  such  a  plan  were  possible 
would  not  multitudes  of  men  who  never  dream  of  living 
scholarly  lives,  of  leading  scholarly  careers,  abandon  all 
thought  of  achieving  mere  commercial  success,  and  at- 
tempt instead  social,  mental,  and  moral  achievements  for 
themselves  and  for  their  fellows  as  the  real  purpose  and 
work  of  all  their  days? 

We  are  sure  that  our  experience  has  demonstrated 
that  the  answer  to  this  inquiry  must  be  in  the  affirmative  ; 
and  it  has  further  demonstrated  that  there  is  a  wav  by 
which  each  student  in  an  institution  may  on  graduation 
become  a  fixed  and  abiding  part  of  the  institution,  if  he 
shall  so  choose. 

Our  fields  are  cultivated,  our  fences  built,  our  cot- 
tages constructed,  our  school  work  arranged,  and  our 
teaching  carried  on  by  the  very  men  who  are  not  only 
builders,  but  students  as  well ;  and  who  are  every  hour 


252  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

becoming  more  interested  in  the  ideals  we  cherish,  in  the 
purposes  which  have  brought  us  together.  When  they 
have  graduated  from  the  course  of  study  it  will  not  mean 
for  many  of  them  that  they  sever  their  connections  with 
the  school  and  cease  to  be  related  to  our  work ;  they  need 
not  graduate  out  of  the  institution,  they  may  graduate 
into  a  fixed  and  abiding  relationship  to  it,  may  become  a 
part  of  its  teaching  force,  or  may  remain  through  the 
years,  if  they  will,  specially  devoted  to  science,  art,  litera- 
ture, inventions,  or  any  other  career  consistent  with  a 
scholarly  purpose. 

Our  members  come  to  us  for  a  brief  trial.  If  they 
prove  themselves  worthy  they  are  admitted  to  not  less 
than  a  four  years'  course.  If,  after  they  have  finished 
their  work  and  have  regularly  graduated  in  the  course  se- 
lected, they  still  wish  to  have  a  share  in  the  work,  in  the 
teaching  and  thinking  and  toiling  which  is  necessary  for 
the  full  life  of  an  industrial  educational  associa- 
tion, they  may  become  permanent  factors  in  the 
life  of  the  institution,  and  give  their  lives  to  make 
greater  and  stronger  the  very  institution  which 
it  is  believed  will  give  greatness  and  strength 
to  them.  In  this  connection,  however,  no  commercial 
motive  can  be  appealed  to,  no  career  of  gain  is  offered.  It 
is  only  one  of  thinking,  of  loving,  of  helping  to  make  the 
race  greater  and  stronger  and  better,  with  the  assurance, 
with  the  satisfaction  of  being  workers  together  with  their 
fellows  in  such  high  endeavor,  which  must  be  to  all 
thoughtful  students  of  life  a  reward  greater  than  any 
other. — From  discussions  of  the  People's'  University. 


CO-WORKERS. 

Every  sort  of  isolation  is  a  misfortune.  No  plant 
grows  to  maturity  and  ripens  its  fruit  ready  to  reproduce 
itself  except  it  grows  in  the  midst  of  its  fellows.  To  be 
taken  out  of  association  is  to  be  taken  away  from  one'  of 
the  principal  sources  of  its  life.  Xo  man  grows  to  be 
strong  in  the  real  virtues  which  belong  to  manhood  ex- 
cept in  association  with  his  fellow^s.  To  separate  him  from 
them  is  to  separate  him  from  many  of  the  sources  of  his 
life.  Not  out  of  the  earth  and  sky  alone  can  he  find  the 
sources  of  his  being.  Not  from  the  thir>gs  that  he  may 
feed  upon,  nor  the  comforts  with  which  he  may  surround 
himseh',  can  he  build  his  manhood  or  realize  the  purpose 
of  his  existence.  But  in  association  where  working  with 
his  fellows,  all  together  obtain  not  only  the  means  of  their 
daily  bread,  but  the  sources  of  each  day's  life — real  life — 
from  companionship  with  each  other. 

A  bird's  nest  built  in  a  swaying  bough  is  exposed  and 
unsteady.  It  would  seem  not  the  surest  place  for  the  little 
fledglings  growing  there,  but  it  is  the  place  fixed  in  na- 
ture, ordained  by  the  instincts  of  the  feathered  tribe  for 
the  growing  of  little  ones.  But  the  nest  alone  with  its 
swaying  shelter,  filled  with  birds,  is  the  center  of  a  tender 
interest,  and  the  chirping  life  grows  strong  and  the  mater- 
nal instinct  which  sets  the  little  fellows  all  alive  for  Iniilfl  • 
ing  other  nests  and  tempting  other  lives  to  be  is  not  so 
much  from  the  nest  as  from  the  association,  the  compan- 
ionship, the  home  Hfe  of  which  the  swaying  branch  is  but 
the  center,  rather  than  the  thing  itself.  Is  th'?re  anything 
so  home-like,  so  captivating  as  such  a  nest?  Is  there  any- 
thing more  dreary,  more  desolate,  than  a  deserted  nest? 
The  difference  between  the  joy  of  the  one  and  t'r.o  Jesola- 

253 


254  EVOLUTIONARY     POLITICS. 

tion  of  the  other  is  not  that  there  are  no  birds  in  the  for- 
est, not  that  no  strange  isolated  bird  tramp  shall  visit  the 
branches.  It  is  that  while  the  nest  remains,  the  nestlin;:s 
are  gone.  Companionship  is  broken,  isolation  has  suc- 
ceeded association,  the  hermitage  has  taken  the  place  of 
the  home. 

A  great  economy  could  be  realized  in  the  point  of 
nests,  places  in  boughs,  and  cost  in  feeding  by  raising  the 
birds  on  a  kind  of  wholesale  fashion,  after  the  plan  of  a 
boarding  school.  In  fact,  that  is  exactly  what  the  board- 
ing school  undertakes. 

But  the  boarding  school  furnishes  plenty  of  associa- 
tion. It  is  the  association  of  a  gang,  not  of  a  home.  The 
natural  way  for  raising  birds  is  in  a  nest,  and  the  natural 
way  is  best.  The  natural  way  for  making  human  beings  is 
a  home,  and  the  home  is  best.  The  purpose  of  a  school 
ought  not  to  be  to  take  the  place  of  a  home,  it  ought  to  be 
an  ideal  home.  It  ought  not  to  place  a  student  in  a  posi- 
tion where  he  must  elect  between  the  fireside  and  the 
school  house,  and  if  he  chooses  either  he  cannot  have  the 
other.  He  ought  not  to  go  away  to  school  unless  he  can 
take  his  home  with  him.  He  ought  not  to  stay  at  home 
unless  he  can  bring  the  school  to  his  own  fireside. 

The  association  which  makes  the  fledglings  into  bird,- 
is  the  association  of  a  nest,  the  parent  birds,  the  chirpin'-; 
and  struggling  of  a  fledgling's  life.  The  association  which 
makes  a  boy  into  a  man,  which  makes  a  girl  into  a 
woman,  is  not  the  association  of  one  boy  with  many  otli- 
ers,  or  of  one  girl  with  a  whole  flock  of  girls  ;  it  is  the  as- 
sociation of  the  fireside,  which  reaches  "backward  to  th..- 
oldest,  and  forward  to  the  tenderest  life.  The  association 
of  a  hundred  boys  with  each  other — the  association  of  a 
dozen  families  with  each  other,  and  the  fireside  associa- 
tion in  the  midst  of  all — between  these  there  is  a  deep 
abyss.  The  school  which  is  organized  to  put  a  boy  into 
the  hopper,  to  grind  him  through  the  routine,  to  turn  him 
out  at  the  other  end  of  the  mill,  to  send  him  on  his  jour- 
ney by  the  next  fast  freight,  has  plenty  of  association,  biii; 
it  is  the  association  which  wrecks  and  ruins,  which  mak  ^s 


CO-WORKERS. 


255 


selfish  and  hard-hearted — it  is  not  the  association  of  the 
fireside,  it  is  not  the  companionship  which  is  best. 

The  home  which  would  organize  to  get  the  largest 
number  of  children  into  it,  to  push  them  through  a  brief 
period  of  home  life  with  the  greatest  dispatch,  to  crowd 
the  old  ones  out  that  the  young  ones  may  have  their  place 
—the  suggestion  of  such  a  home  is  as'  shocking  as  the 
school  idea  which  involves  the  same  thing  is  unnatural 
and  unreasonable.  Ties  that  are  to  be  established  at  all 
should  have  at  least  the  possibility  of  permanence.  Asso- 
ciations which  are  to  get  their  grip  on  our  childhood 
should  liave  a  possible  share  at  least  in  all  the  life  tliat  is 
to  follow.  The  parents  and  grandparents  back  of  us,  the 
children  and  grandchildren  before  us,  associations  with 
these  ties  are  behind  our  lives,  these  are  real  factors  in  hu- 
man life,  and  these  are  the  ideals  which  we  cherish.  The 
old  and  the  young  are  with  us,  our  best  workers  tor  re- 
cruits are  those  who  are  bringing  with  them  their  friends, 
their  parents,  or  their  children.  No  crowd  of  boys,  no 
troop  of  girls,  disassociated  from  their  seniors,  separated 
from  the  older  ones  before  them,  or  the  little  ones  toddling 
after  them,  is  sought  for.  But  simplv  a  big  family  with 
all  the  ties  and  associations  of  each  smaller  family  pie- 
served,  this  is  what  we  are  working  for,  and  this  is  what 
we  shall  realize. — From  discussions  of  the  People's  Uni- 
versity. 


IJ^I^r^r 


25th  Edition  Now  Ready 

President  John  Smith 


The  Story  of  a  Peaceful  Revolution 


m^ 


By  FREDERICK   UPHAM   ADAMS 


A  book  does  not  sell  twenty-five  editions  in  a  year 
without  a  reason. 

In  this  case  there  are  several  reasons 

The  people  are  sick  and  tired  of  the  misrule  of  po- 
litical bosses.  The>  want  something  better,  and  they 
want  it  now. 

They  have  no  idea  of  how  a  remedy  can  be  applied, 
but  they  know  they  want  one. 

"  PRESIDENT  JOHN  SMITH  "  has  a  clear  and 
definite  idea  of  what  should  be  done.  Every  earnest  re- 
former who  reads  the  book  feels  as  if  his  own  ideas  had 
been  stated  better  than  he  could  state  them  himself. 

That  is  why  he  has  been  recommending  "  PRESI- 
DENT JOHN  SMITH  "  to  his  friends  and  buying  cop- 
ies to  give  away. 

We  have  made  the  price  to  suit  the  times:  300  large 
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1,000  tor  $67.50.     You  send  the  cash ;  we  pay  the  postage. 


tM 


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